New Journey: Hoenn Style
by KrystalClear101
Summary: A twist on Ash's adventure through the Hoenn Region along with May, Max and Brock. A combination of the game and anime full of funny scenarios and even funnier personalities, all fan-based. Read and Review! Chapter 24 up!
1. From Bad, to Worse, to Terrible

**KrystalClear101: Hi!Hi! Everyone! This is the first story I've ever written! I'm revising it!**

**(clears throat)**

**Kris: Just like old times, AJ! Do the disclaimer please!**

**(a character from another story)**

**AJ: Sure just remember to give me five bucks.**

**Kris: Five bucks? Seriously? We've been through this, you work for me so why should I pay you?**

**AJ: Exactly! I work for you so I should be getting paid!**

**Kris: ...Fine! Lousy no good money stealing-**

**AJ: KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokemon..**

**Kris: Now that I'm five dollars poorer, we can begin!**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 1

From _Bad_, to _Worse_, to _Terrible_

_'Why me?'_ Is what I often ask myself. '_Why me? Why did we have to move? Why am I an only child? Why do I have to get a pokemon?'_ Are the questions that I always ask myself but never seem to get an answer. You're probably wondering what's going on. We'll I'd be happy to explain how my day went from bad, to worse, to terrible, in three parts.

FLASHBACK!-That's the part of the story where we go back in time to explain things you missed.

_Far away in a distant place, a forest is burning with young girl inside. _

_"Hello? Is someone there? Please someone help me! Hurry!" her cries are left unanswered. Suddenly tree breaks, and then begins to fall right on top of the girl._

_"AAAHHH!" she screams as she closes her eyes and braces for pain. Then something, or someone carries her out of danger. She feels the wind in her face so she slowly opens her eyes to see that she's in the arms of a stranger. Once they're out of the burning forest he slowly puts her down and begins to walk away. _

_"Wait!" she calls out to him. _

_"What's your name?" Although he turns around, his face is not visible. _

_"My name is-"_

"-MAY! Are you still sleeping? You better get up or you're going to be late!" Mother says as she yells up the stairs interrupting my dreams.

At the sound of her shrill voice I jump and-

"OW!" I bang my head on the head board.

"Geez that hurt!" I shrieked clutching my head tightly as tear drops form in the corner of my eyes. An anime style bump the size of a minimized pokeball appears on my head.

INTERMISSION

(clears throat)

Part 1: Banging My Head on the headboard

BAD

END OF INTERMISSION

I slowly get out of bed with one hand on my head as if that would ease the pain. I walk down the hallway towards the bathroom and start my usual routine. You know, teeth, hair, clothes, and my favorite, breakfast. Considering the fact that I love food.

So I get ready to brush teeth using my new tunes toothbrush that plays music while you brush your teeth. I forget what song it is. After I brush my teeth I walk back to my room to brush my hair which is a jungle by now. I'm known to have 'unruly' hair.

As I reach the mirror I pick up my brush and begin to 'tame the jungle' that is my brunette colored hair. I neatly part it half way in the middle into two separate pieces and comb my bangs down, giving me my signature look.

I reach into my draw and pull out my usual attire, which is a red and navy blue polo top, dark blue biker shorts, and a white mini skirt to go on top. Then I pull out my long all black socks, as well as my red and white bandana and white and blue gloves.

As you can already tell I am very color coordinated. After I get all my clothes on I neatly tie my bandana on my hair and fasten my shoes which are also red, white, black, and yellow. Therefore completing my ensemble.

So far so good. My morning was going great aside from the increasing headache I had. Everything was going in routine, until I saw it.

The horror.

The HORROR THAT IS!

An empty table.

"Mom!" I screamed in terror. It was like I had been abducted by aliens or something, my worst nightmare. NO FOOD!

"What? You're still here? You need to get going or else there'll be no pokemon left by the time you get there!" she said.

"But Mom! What about breakfast?" I whined while pinching myself, thinking I'm still dreaming.

"You're going to have to _skip breakfast_in order to get there on time." Those words

"S-skip b-br-bre-breakfast!" the two most horrible words in the Universe. "NOOO!"

"You know if you don't get a pokemon today your father will be very upset." she explained.

"Pokemon, smokemon. Who cares? I just want breakfast." I whined again as if hope was still there.

"GO! You can eat when you get back, now go!" she demanded.

This was great, just great. I've got a throbbing headache and my stomach keeps reminding me that I _skipped breakfast_. Just then I shiver.

"Just reality that I _skipped breakfast_makes me shudder." I sigh. "No use in cryin over spilled milk, with pancakes, buttered toast with ja- Snap out of it!" I yell out loud as hear whispers about the girl who talks to herself.

"Heh...move it along people nothing to see here!" I nervously assure my neighborhood. "Who knew these people were so nosy, sheez!"

"Good morning bike!" I say as I board my beautiful candy apple red bike. I love my bike. Not only does it get me where I need to go, but it matches my clothes!

With that I take off quietly riding through town, avoiding eye contact with the people I pass by, not wanting to be apart their daily gossip. I happily pedal through town smiling as I pass the gym, the best part of town. I wave to my dad as I exit the city. I sigh.

"I know it's really important that I get a pokemon, but I just don't like em' all that much seeing as their the reason dad forgets my birthday and stuff. But the thing I really wanna do is travel, see the world, and try all kinds of food! That'll be the best thing that comes out of this."

I keep riding as I reach Oldale town. A quaint small town probably the size of a thumbtack on a map, maybe smaller. As I keep riding I notice something. Hardly no people live here, about two houses, a PC, and a mart. "No wonder nobody lives here, there's nothing here! No gyms, no halls, no nothin'! I think I know why it's called Oldale, probably nothing but old people." I laugh at myself criticizing the town.

As I'm riding through the woods outside of Littleroot I see some ridges and decide to take a chance and jump over em'."Whoo Hoo! Yeah! That was awesome!" I said as I let the adrenaline take over. I'm preoccupied with adventure that I don't see this weird thing hovering over to me until it was too late.

"AAAHHH!" I scream losing control and running into a tree and bumped my head for the second time today.

INTERMISSION

Part 2: Bumping my head on a Tree

WORSE

END OF INTERMISSION

I'm on my bike clutching my head as the tear drops increase, not ready to flow but gettin there. "OW! Geez man, that hurts! Why didn't it have to hit in the same spot!" I scream. My headache now a migraine. "I can't ride my bike with this migraine. Sigh. I'll have to walk it the rest of the way." So I walked the rest of the way to Littleroot Town. "Wow. Some town, two houses and a big building, must be the lab.

Suddenly my nose twitches, "What's that smell?" As I get closer to the lab the smell increases. "_Guu"_My stomach tells me. Then I start to drool but I keep my composure as to act like a lady. Yeah right.

Finally I reach the Lab and lean my bike on the wall and start to walk towards the door as the smell gets stronger and stronger. "Aww man somethin' smells good!" I exclaim. Then I knock on the door. "Hello? Prof. Birch? It me, May." I say. Then a man about 6'1, 300 lbs., and brown hair and beard answers the door. He looks kinda annoyed.

"Hello May, you're late." he says as he welcomes me in. _"What else is new?"_I thought to myself. "You've grown a lot since I last saw you, how have you been?" he asked.

I completely ignore him due to the fact that I smell food and haven't had breakfast, I sniff then ask "A-are you h-having breakfast?" I stutter letting my hunger get the better of me.

"Why yes would you care to join us?" he asked offering food.

"Would I ever!" I exclaim wiping the drool from my mouth and approaching the table. I soon grab a plate stacking it two miles high with pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

Then as I reached for the syrup, it happened. The second horror.

THE HORROR THAT IS!

"OW!" I screamed, but this time I wasn't alone. I had bumped heads with somebody else.

INTERMISSION

Part 3: Bumping heads with someone else

TERRIBLE (wait for it...) (the 2nd HORROR!)

END OF INTERMISSION

My hands now clutching my head for the third time today and the tears now in a steady flow. I look up to see who the culprit was that caused me such pain, and what I see is a boy about my height with black hair, a red hat, a dark blue sweatshirt, light blue jeans, and black and blue shoes.

Me, now clutching me head, am now hyperventilating. "Why does it always hit the same spot." I said with a dazed tone and then blacked out.

To top it all off, I dropped my plate! Why? Why? WHY? Not the food, anything but the food!

END OF FLASHBACK

So that's what happened. Where am I now?

"Hey, it looks like she coming around." I heard a voice say.

I open my eyes to see "Prof. Birch? What's going on? What happened?"

"Well," he said nervously "you sorta bumped heads with Ash over here and passed out." I look over to where he's pointing and see the same guy from before. "Tell me, have you suffered from any head injuries lately?"

As I begin to sit up, I am painfully reminded about this migraine. "Aw! It hurts to remember!" Then I see that guy laughing, and me rage takes over. "Hey! This is partially your fault, so I wouldn't be laughing if I were you, iron head!"

He then has an embarrassed look on his face and scratches his head. 'That shut him up!' I smirk on the inside. "Well, this morning I did happen to bump my head on the head board. And I ran into a tree on my way here."

I saw him laughing again, I glared at him while shooting daggers with my eyes. "Ah, now I see why you passed out. You have a minor concussion, too many bumps on the head, if you don't mind me saying. My advice, take it easy and watch where you're going. Oh here take these every four hours. That should stop the headaches." he said as he handed me a bottle of pills.

Great, I have a concussion, and now they're putting me on drugs, what next. Oh yes, the pokemon. "Can I get my pokemon now?" I ask in an annoyed tone. "Guu" My stomach reminds me. "Uhh can we eat first? I'm starving!" I laugh nervously.

**Kris: Well, this is the first chapter. Hope you liked it! Updates are every Friday.**

**AJ: (mobbing around) -sigh-**

**Kris: What's wrong with you?**

**AJ: I'm not in this story!**

**Kris: -sigh- Drama Queen. Like I said updates are Fridays I'll try to keep up, but if I can't please don't hate me for it.**

**AJ: I heard that!**

**Kris: Like it matters! Anyway, Read and Review please! 4 sure!**

**R&R**


	2. It Starts

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone tis my again for the second time.**

**Mikey: Hey everybody!**

**(a character from another story)**

**AJ: Oh! Oh! Pick me, pick me!**

**Mikey: Pick you for what?**

**Kris: For the disclaimer. No Way!**

**AJ: Aw why not?**

**Kris: Beause it cost five bucks last time, Mikey would you do it?**

**Mikey: Uh….Okay? KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokemon.**

**Kris: Money doesn't grow on trees you know.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 2

'_It'_Starts

"Aw man, this is so good! How'd you learn to cook like this?" I ask surprised.

"Well I was a pro chef before I became a Professor." he said modestly.

"Really? It has to be awesome to live at your house." I exclaimed.

"I used to travel with a guy that could cook just like this. All of his food was great, I never went hungry." that other guy says.

I almost completely ignore him until he says cook. _'I don't really like him that much, I guess you could say he's kinda cute in weird kinda way. Wait. Eww what am I saying? Snap out May!'_I'm already down to my fourth plate. I would continue but they keep staring at me with a 'where does it all go?' look, who wants that. So I satisfy myself with only four plates.

"May are you excited by about your first pokemon?" Prof. Birch asked scaring me.

"Uh…yeah sure why not?" I answer nervously.

"I remember when I got my first pokemon, it's this little guy here." he said pointing to a yellow thing on his shoulder.

"Aww! It's so cute!" I say letting my girly-girl instinct take over me. "What's its name?" I ask while gently scratching behind its ears.

"Pikachu." he says. Then all of the sudden, it jumps from his shoulder to mine. "Hey, Pikachu really likes you." he says with a smile. It's starts to snuggle my face.

"I like you to Pikachu. Hey that tickles!" I giggle. Then it jumps back to his shoulder and smiles.

"I don't think I introduced myself, my name is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town." he says extending his hand.

"Oh yeah. I'm May Maple, from Goldenrod City." I say.

"Really? From Goldenrod? Are you a trainer?" he asked confused.

"No, not yet that's where I'm from originally, I live in Petalburg." I explained.

"Well May, you have three pokemon to choose from. First is Treecko, the grass type."

"Treecko!" it says. "It's creepy!" I exclaim.

"No it's not May, I think it's a really cool pokemon."

"Next is Mudkip, the water type."

"Mudkip!"

"That's kinda mischievous to me." I say.

"Aw he wouldn't cause any trouble." Ash says.

"And last there's Torchic, the fire type."

"Torchic!"

"Well, this one's not so bad. I actually like it, it's kinda cute. I choose Torchic." At that it jumped in my arms.

"Torchic seems to like you, May. Oh! Here is your Pokedex and five extra pokeballs. If you work hard you'll became a great trainer and maybe even surpass your father." says the bearded man.

"Sounds like a great goal May." Ash adds in.

"Hehehe. Thanks Ash." I say nervously. "I'd give up pokemon for a trip around the world any day." I say under my breath.

"What was that?" "Oh! I said I wouldn't give it up for the world. Heheheh!" I sweat drop and laugh nervously. I return Torchic and we all head outside.

"May, you will travel with Ash until your condition gets better." Prof. Birch says.

"What?" I blurt out.

"I don't feel comfortable letting you out by yourself with a concussion, besides, you can keep each other company." he said.

"Well there's no point in arguing, alright. Can I leave my bike here though?" I ask sighing.

"Yes, you can come get it after your journey is over. Good Luck!"

"Thanks Professor, bye!" we both say in unison. With that we take off. This is my journey with fire leftovers AKA Ash. _'It'_Starts.

**Kris: Alright, alright. I know this one is short but keep in mind that the next one is on its way alright.**

**Mikey: Oh yeah! She changed one thing, updates are whenever she finishes a chapter.**

**AJ: Which means never!**

**Kris: Whatever AJ, that's why I'm writing you out of my next story so ha! **

**AJ: Cruel, CRUEL WORLD! WHY!**

**Mikey: Geez, get a grip will ya' anywayz…**

**All: Thanks for reading! 4 Sure!**

**R&R**


	3. Short For

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Well this chapter three. Oh everybody say hi to Lisa.**

**(a character from another story)**

**Lisa: Hello! So what is there to do?**

**Kris: Well, nothing really just wait or do something else.**

**Lisa: Oh I know, I'll make us lunch.**

**All: NO!**

**Kris: I mean, I'm not that hungry. Don't wanna waste food right? Here go refill the chip bowl.**

**Lisa: Well, okay!**

**Kris: Phew that was close, You'll understand later why Lisa shouldn't be the one cooking.**

**AJ: That's for sure, anyway, I'm feeling nice today so I'll do the disclaimer free of charge. KrystalClear101 does not own pokemon.**

**QT: Somebody pinch me, I'm dreaming. OW! Not really! Geez man!**

Chapter 3

Short For…

It's already been three days since I started on my journey with Ash and so far things are going good, besides the fact the when he snores it's like a stampede. But everything else is fine.

"So May, do you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked me.

"Nope, I'm an only child, but I'm not spoiled. What about you?" I ask back.

"Same here except I live with just my mother." he said.

"What about your dad?" I ask being nosy. "I don't wanna talk about it." he said in a sad tone almost making me feel sorry for him.

"Oh." After that it was quiet for a while. "Wait a second! I remember you! Your Ash Ketchum." I exclaim.

"Uh…yeah, I thought we went over this?" he says.

"No I saw you on TV at the Silver Conference. You got best eight." I explain.

"Oh yeah but how'd you see me?" he asked. Clueless!

"Do you listen? Remember I said I lived in Goldenrod City? Which is in Johto? Where you competed? Duh!" I said

"Oh yeah." he laughed nervously. I so wanted to slap him in the head but I kept my composure. We continued to walk down the road when we heard rustling in the bushes. I immediately reached for my pokeball as Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder. Suddenly out came a red worm looking pokemon.

"AW! Look at it, it's so cute! I have to catch it." I then reach for an empty pokeball.

"Wait May!" he stops me.

"What? I have to catch before it gets way!" I exclaim.

"But that's not how you catch a pokemon, you have to weaken it first, then throw the ball." he explained.

"Oh right…" I sweat dropped embarrassed. "Okay, Torchic let's go!" I shout as I throw the ball.

"Torchic Tor!" it says.

"Okay Torchic, use ember!" he shout the command. It then shoots red beams at the worm and it takes damage head on. "Is it weak enough?" I ask Ash.

"Yeah now throw ball." he says.

"Don't have to tell me twice! Go pokeball!" I shout throwing the ball at the worm. "Is it caught?" I ask.

"We'll have to wait until it stops moving." he says. The all of the sudden it stops.

"Alright! I caught my first pokemon!" I exclaim holding it in the air.

"That's great May, you did good for your first time." he said smiling at me.

"Thanks, but I could've have done it without your help." I say.

"Hey use your pokedex to see what pokemon it is." he suggest.

"Alright let's see, _"Wurmple, the worm pokemon. It sticks to tree branched and eats leaves. The thread it spits from its mouth, which becomes gooey when it touched air, slows the movement of its foes."_

"So it's a Wurmple huh? Cool. Hey do you know how much further it is to the pokemon center Ash?" I ask.

"Well, it shouldn't that far away, let's keep walking." We keep walking in silence until I decide to strike up conversation.

"So, Ash is it," I start.

"Yeah?"

"That's a strange name, no offense." I say putting my finger to my chin.

"What about it?"

"Well, why do you think your mom named you that?" I ask.

"I don't know, why?" he asked back.

"I was just wandering, I mean there aren't that many people named Ash. Is it short for something else?" I ask again. I notice he begins to sweat out of control.

"Uh..ehehehe so May how'd you get your name?" he asks changing the subject.

"But you didn't answer my question? That makes me suspicious. Hmm, wonder what it's short for. Oh well, forget I even asked." We keep walking until we get to Oldale Town.

"So this is Oldale Town huh? No much to show for." he said.

"That's what I said. Kind of boring. It needs something, like an attraction, oh well."

"Hey it's getting late, that's head to the pokemon center and rest."

"Okay."

"Hey Nurse Joy could you heal our pokemon, and give us a room?" he asked her.

"I'd be happy too, just a moment please. Here you are. Your Pokemon are back to normal health and your room is down the hall first door on your left, have a nice evening." she said with a smile.

When we got to the room I pushed pass Ash and immediately got the bed on the right.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" he yells.

"I want the soft bed, I got a tip from the Nurse Joy in Goldenrod that the bed on the right is the softest." I explained. He looked kind of annoyed.

"Whatever." He murmured. As I'm lying on the bed I begin to think about what his really name could be.

_'Hmm, what could it be. Ashton, Ashford, Ash-, no! I couldn't be!. Maybe that's why he was acting all weird.'_

"Hey Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I have a pretty good idea what your name is." At that he shot up, but didn't notice him start to walk over to my bed. "Is it Ash-" then I felt a hand over my mouth. I opened up my eyes to see him standing over me with a weird look on his face.

"Never, ever call me that. Never! Okay?" he said in a deep tone. I lightly shook my head yes, as in I understood. He quickly removed his hand and went back to his side of the room.

"Goodnight." he said in a somewhat lighter tone.

"Goodnight" I answer back. _'So that's what his name is, Oh my gosh!'_ I giggle then close my eyes.

**Kris: That's the end of the third chapter. I put some hints of funnies in there and a bit of learning to be made.**

**AJ: If you didn't like it she'll understand.**

**Kris: Whatever AJ, you punk! Anyway hope you liked it!**

**AJ: More like hated it…**

**All: Thanks for reading! 4 Sure!**


	4. Parental Control

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! This is the fourth chapter and so far so good.**

**AJ: Hello my adoring fans!**

**Kris: Sorry to deflate your humongous ego, but you have no fans!**

**AJ: (crying) You are so mean! I'm not doing the disclaimer free ever again.**

**Kris: Whatever.**

**May: Hi guys!**

**Kris: May? What are you doing here? Doesn't matter, will you do the disclaimer?**

**May: Okay. KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokemon.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 4

Parental Control

After walking for what seemed like forever, we finally made it to Petalburg City. "Well, this is Petalburg City, my home."

"You don't look to excited to be home, something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh no I'm fine." I lied.

"Wow this city is really big! Hey you wanna take a break?"

"Sure, there's some seats over here!" I say pointing towards the park. We sit down and start to talk.

"So May, do you know what type of pokemon the gym leader will use?"

"It's a normal type gym."

"Oh, what's the gym leader like?" I immediately get up and do poses.

"He's tough and strong…" I say with punching the air "…but kind and gentle." I finish now gliding across the ground.

"So you know him?" he asked.

"No! Those are just some things I've heard." I lied for the second time.

"Hey! Why don't I show you to my house, then we'll head to the gym."

"Sounds good to me." We leave the park area and head down the road to my house. It's not that big but I guess you could say it's bigger than most houses. Two stories, bathroom on each floor with three bedrooms. My room, my parents room and the guestroom.

"Hey mom! I'm home!." I yell into the house.

"Hi honey, I was wandering when you'd be back. Oh, who's this?" she said slyly.

"This is Ash, he's a trainer from Kanto."

"Hi Mrs. Maple!"

"Hello Ash. Are taking good care of May?" I immediately blush.

"Uh well you've seen my house, now let's go to the gym bye mom!" I say pushing him out.

"Phew!"

"What was that about?"

"Don't ask, now do you want me to show you to the gym or not?"

"Alright let's go." he says.

"Yes let's." I say with a sigh. As we enter the gym, I can feel butterflies all in my stomach. I finally build up the courage to say,

"Dad are you here?" out of the corner of my eye I can see Ash stop in his tracks looking at me with disbelief.

"D-did you just s-say d-dad?" he stuttered.

"Uh, yeah, about that. Ya see my dad is the gym leader here." I say nervously.

"How come you never told me?" he asked angrily.

"You never asked!" I fired back.

"Is that my daughter?" I heard a familiar voice say.

"Hi daddy!" I say standing in the same place.

"Well it's good to see you Mai." He said my name WRONG!

"It's May." I said annoyed.

"Right. Who's this young man?" he said looking at Ash.

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and I'm here to challenge you to a battle!"

"I accept! How's three on three sound?" he offered.

"Not so good, I only have Pikachu with me." he confessed.

"Well that's too bad. Why don't you come back when you have more pokemon, in the meantime you can stay with us, we'd be more than happy to have you." I was shocked.

After dad locked up the gym we headed home and had dinner. And oh what a night that was.

"And then she tried to catch her!" dad blurted out as everyone else started laughing. I had completely shrunken in my seat.

'So embarrassing!' I thought to myself.

"Well it's getting late, you two better get some rest. Ash you can sleep in the guest bedroom on the first floor." mom said.

"May would you help me clean up?"

"Sure Mom!" I said in a sad tone.

"What was that about?" I ask almost yelling.

"What was what about?"

"That! The embarrassing stories! You guys know I hate the Tentacruel story!" I said putting the dishes in the sink.

"Oh come on honey, we were just having a little fun." she laughed it off.

"Yeah at my expense!"

"Well since you're so bummed out about it go on to bed and I'll finish up in here."

"Alright." I stormed up the stairs.

"Goodnight sweetie."

I quickly shut the door and buried my head in the pillows. I wanted so bad to cry but I couldn't, I was too mad. So mad I couldn't sleep. I knew this was gonna be a long night.

**Kris: Hey guys, sorry if this one is short. But for all you advancedshippers out there, stay tuned for the next chapter. I guarantee you'll like it.**

**AJ: Yeah this is where it really begins.**

**All: Thanks for reading! 4 Sure!**


	5. Roasting Confession

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! I hope you're ready for this chapter.**

**AJ: Grab your tissue boxes because this is a sad one.**

**Kris: Oh yeah! Thank you to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. I practically live for your reviews it makes me so happy that you like this story.**

**AJ: Nice work everyone she's crying! (crying)**

**Kris: Am not, that's you!**

**AJ: SO! (wailing)**

**Kris: -sigh- I'll do the disclaimer. I'm not the owner of Pokemon!**

**Both: Start the Party!**

Chapter 5

Roasting Confession

Normal POV

It was 12:30 at night and May just couldn't get to sleep. She slowly got out of her bed and quietly walked down the stairs as not to wake anybody. As soon as she reached the last step she tiptoed passed Ash's room and headed towards the kitchen.

Once there she dug into the cabinets, pulled out a bag of jumbo sized marshmallows and a fork. She stuck one of the marshmallows on the fork and turned on the oven.

"I'm so glad we have a gas oven." she said out loud.

"May?" she heard a voice say. She turned around to see Ash rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"What are you doing up?" he asked her.

"I couldn't sleep." she confessed.

"What are you doing?" he asked walking over to her.

"Roasting Marshmallows. You want one?" she offered.

"Sure. Do you always roast marshmallows when you can't sleep?" he inquired, taking the sweet snack stabbed with a fork from her hands.

"Yeah. Bad for my teeth, I know," she said with a laugh. "Usually when I have a lot on my mind I can't sleep." she said looking sadly into the fire.

After a few seconds over the fire the marshmallows when up in flames. The two quickly blew them out. They were now a brownish color.

"Ooo! It's hot!" May exclaimed. After turning off the stove, she walked over to the living room and Ash followed, marshmallows still in their hands. She sat behind the couch and begin eating her snack.

"May, you mind telling what you were thinking about?" Ash asked curiously.

"I was thinking about my journey. You know at first I didn't like pokemon at all. I didn't even want to get a pokemon, my dad made me." she said with a somewhat angry tone.

"Why?"

"He said it wouldn't be good for a gym leader's reputation if his child didn't get a pokemon. So got one just to please him." she said fighting back tears.

"Ash? You know when we were talking about our family a few days ago?"

"Yeah?"

"I lied." She confessed.

"What do you mean?" she lied? What did that mean? Why would she lie?

"I mean that the woman you met today isn't my real mother." Ash was shocked.

"My real mother died shortly after giving birth to me." she said with tears sliding down her face. Ash couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Then when I turned one, my father got remarried cause he knew I'd need a mother. So he married Maria. I hadn't found out until last year. Ever since then I haven't slept well. About a month ago I started doing the marshmallow thing."

"Oh May." He called supportively.

"And what's worse is I don't think my dad even loves me." she said burying her head in her knees.

"May that can't be true." He argued, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You saw what happened at the gym! He forgot my name!" she said crying harder. "He spends so much time in that gym, it's almost like I'm not even here. He even forgot my birthday was last week!" she said now sobbing.

Ash was now rubbing her back as a way of comforting her.

"Ash, I'm sorry for dumping all this on you." she said wiping her tears.

"It's alright May. If it makes you feel any better, I never knew my dad. He left right after I was born. And my mom didn't get remarried so it's just been me and her. After I started my journey I set a goal to become the greatest Pokemon Master. I'd be really famous, and somewhere out there he would see how far I'd gotten without him." he said.

"That's a great goal Ash, and thanks." she said slightly smiling.

"You're welcome May." he smiled back.

"Why?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because you're my friend May." he told her.

"But we just met."

"Doesn't matter if we just met, you're still my friend and I don't want to see you upset." She looked at him for a few minutes and leaned back on the couch and slowly closed her eyes. They just sat there for a few minutes until Ash felt something heavy hit his shoulder suddenly. He look over and saw May sound asleep.

He smiled at her and gently picked her up in his arms and started walking toward her room. He slowly placed her in her bed trying to interrupt her sleep. As he walked out the door May opened her eyes only for a second and saw him leaving. She then closed them and went back to sleep.

**Kris: You know after revising this I realized that this wasn't as sad as I thought it was. Granted, I was only like fourteen at the time but whatever!**

**AJ: You're right. It's not. I can't believe I was crying like I did.**

**Kris: Anyway, I got a review about some conflicts about this chapter based on opinions! So guess what I did? I left it as it was! Why? Because it's my story!**

**All: Yeah!**

**Kris: That's all. Move onto the next chapter and see what you think!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	6. Understood

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Chapter six of the revised edition!**

**AJ: So what made you want to revise this anyway?**

**Mikey: Are you serious? This story sucked!**

**Kris: Um ouch? Tell me how to really feel.**

**Mikey: I just did. Weren't you paying attention?**

**Kris: …**

**AJ: And this just got awkward. KrystalClear101 doesn't own pokemon.**

**Kris: Obvi. Read on readers! Reader until your dream come true!**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 6

Understood

"_Please, what is your name?" she pleaded. _

_"My name is A-"_

"May! It's time to get up! You can't sleep the whole do away!" Yet again my mother interrupts my dreams with her insane screaming.

"Alright, alright! I'm up, I'm up! Gosh!" I screamed back. I made an extreme effort not to hit my head this time. "Oh, morning already!" I say wiping the sleep from my eyes.

After doing my usual routine, I walked down the stairs anticipating a well-deserved breakfast. But when I got all the way down the stairs I was knocked back to reality, literally.

BAM!

"Ow! Geez!" déjà vu much? I look up to see Ash in the same position as me, on the ground. I keep my eyes on him as he slowly gets up and dusts off his pants.

"We have really got to stop meeting like this." He said extending his hand out to me, smiling. I returned the smile and accepted his offer to help me up.

Once I was on two feet again, I noticed something. He never let go of my hand. Without words, I looked at him with great confusion but I only showed it in my eyes. He looked down on me with an understanding look. Flashbacks from last night ran through my mind. He knew I had been though a lot and I needed someone to be there for me. And from that moment on, I knew I could count on him to be there.

I switched my gaze to his little yellow companion and I got the same promise. He gave a reassuring stare and smiled. For the first time in a long time, I was happy. He gave my hand a gentle squeeze and let go. He headed down the hall towards the kitchen.

"Well goodmorning chrildren! How'd you sleep?" Mom said as cheerful as ever.

"Great thanks! Where's-?" he asked.

"He probably had to go to the gym or something." I said with a sigh.

"Yeah, he said something about getting an early start. Well eat up! I made a big breakfast today!" mom said placing all the food on the table.

Oh yeah! Smorgasbord!

"It's so beautiful!" I said drooling and sparkly eyed. I quickly took my seat on the end and Ash sat down next to me. In a split second we both stacked our plates five miles high with everything in sight. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, biscuits, waffles, cereal, oatmeal (yuck!), you name it! Once I thought I had enough I settled myself down and prepared to dig in. I looked to my left to see a similar scene on Ash's end. We had identical plates.

All of the sudden it seemed like my dining room had turned into an arena. I felt a little threaten, like I was fighting for my title of food eating Champ, and he was fighting for his too. We both shot electrifying glares at each other that even scared Pikachu. I took my weapon in my hands, and he took his. In my head I heard 'On your mark! Get set! Go!'

The war had started.

It continued on for seemed like hours. We were eating like it was our last meal. I could see the horror on mom's face, nightmare!

He was at my level and I was at his, neither of us giving an inch. It all came down to one bagel. He took one half and I took the other. Just when we both were about to take a bite it happened. We both fell out of our chairs collapsing.

DRAW!

**Kris: Disgraceful! Look at how short this is! Ugh!**

**ALL: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	7. First Impressions

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Welcome to chapter seven!**

**All: Woot woot!**

**Kris: Yeah, get excited!**

**Mikey: So what's so great about this chapter?**

**AJ: Team Rocket's in it!**

**Kris: Yeah, there's nothing exciting about that.**

**AJ: ! You're right…**

**Mikey: KrystalClear101 doesn't own pokemon.**

Chapter 7

First Impressions

"Thanks for the hospitality Mrs. Maple!" Ash said waving off.

"See you later mom!" I yell in the same direction.

"Bye kids! Be safe! Don't anything happen to May!" We both sweat drop.

"Just nod a wave." I whisper.

As soon as we were out of shouting distance we started talking.

"Hey May? Can I ask you something?" he started.

"That depends, what is it?" I say curiously. "Where does it all go?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

"Huh?" I say confused.

"The food, where does it all go?" he asked looking at my stomach.

"I could ask you the same thing." I say poking his.

"I guess that's true, but I've never met anyone who could eat as much as me." he said scratching his head.

"Me neither." I confessed with a chuckle."So, how do you like it in Hoenn so far?" I started this time.

"Well, my first day wasn't so good." he admitted.

"What happened?" I asked as we walked past the city limits. He proceeded to tell me about this group called 'Team Rocket' and how they're always trying to steal his Pikachu. They attack him on his way to Hoenn, resulting in the little guy becoming extremely ill. Thankfully, everything turned out all right and they were sent careening away into the sky.

"They've been following me ever since I started my journey." he said angrily.

"And they haven't managed to catch anything? Wow what a bunch of losers." I snorted, quite unladylike.

"I just can't believe they followed me here." he said.

"Have you ever tried a restraining order?" I ask.

"Hmm? I never thought about tha-!" he yelled falling into a hole. I looked down.

"Hey, are you okay?" I yell down.

"Define okay." he mumbled. I heard rustling in the bushwa, then two people and a pokemon jumped out. One of them was a woman with long, strange, red hair and the other was a man with short, strange, blue hair. Who were these clowns?

"Prepare for trouble, with the same old joke…" yelled the red-haired woman.

"…Make it double, you've got no hope…" said the blue-haired man.

"…To protect the world from devastation…" getting bored.

"…To unite all people within our nation…" yawning.

"…To denounce the evils of truth and love…" getting drowsy.

"…To extend our reach to the stars above…" yawning again.

"…Jesse…" closing

"…James…" eyes

"…Team Rocket Blasts off at the speed of light…" sleeping.

"…Surrender now or prepare to fight…" snoring.

"…Meowth, dat's right!" nose bubble.

"What the heck? She's asleep!" Jesse yelled.

"Wait a second, that's not the twerpette. And where's the tall twerp?" James asked confused.

"Who cares! Where's dat Pikachu?" asked the cat pokemon.

At the moment I woke up, unaware of my surroundings.

"Who are you?" I ask looking at the strangers.

"Must we do our introduction again?" the red haired woman screamed.

"No need." I heard a voice say. I turn around to see Ash out of the hole. "These are the crooks I was telling you about, Team Rocket. That's Jesse with the red hair, James in blue, and Meowth, the talking pokemon." he easily pointed them out.

"Thanks for the intro twerp, we'll just be taking your Pikachu now!" Jesse laughed. "No way! I'm not letting you get Pikachu!" Ash yelled.

"How do ya like dis?" Meowth said holding out a smoke machine.

"What's going on?" I cough.

"They're using the smoke as a distraction." I heard Ash say.

"Ash where are you?" I begin to look, then something lifted me off the ground. "Hey! What's going on?" I yelled in protest. I begin to inhale too much smoke and then it all went black.

When I opened my eyes I found out that I was tied up hanging from a branch on a tree. I opened my mouth to tell somebody off, but there was a cloth tied over it. I sighed angrily. Looking down I saw those three goons conversing, so I listened in.

"I can't believe you mistook Pikachu for the twerpette!" Jesse yelled.

"It was dark and I couldn't tell what the net was grabbing." James confessed nervously. "Look da twoip is coming back so we'll get Pikachu den." Meowth concluded.

"Right!" the two humans agreed.

_'Where the heck is Ash?_' I said to myself.

"Psst." I heard. "Psst. May? Are you okay?" I spot Ash in the bushes.

_'As if I can answer._' I thought. "I'm going to get you down okay?" I nodded.

"What's that noise?" Jesse asked.

"Go check it out Meowth. It might be the twerp."

_'Oh no!'_ I watched as Meowth got closer to where Ash was.

"Now!"

"PI-KA-CHU!"

I then saw a lot of electricity and sparks coming from the bush, and Meowth toppling over.

"Wow." I said, lifting the cloth from my mouth (don't ask me how).

"Go Pikachu, up the tree." Ash commanded. I watched as good as I could as the Pikachu climbed the tree to where I was. "Oh no. What are you doing? Don't bite that or I'll fall!" I scream. He continued to bite through the rope until—SNAP!

"Ah!" I shrieked as I got closer to the ground. I closed my eyes in fear. Although my life wasn't flashing before my eyes, I would've enjoyed a movie on this drop.

When I couldn't feel the wind in my face anyone more, I opened my eyes and I saw Ash looking down on me.

"You okay?" he said as he slowly put me down.

"Define okay." I said with a laugh. He laughed back, started to untie me. "Thanks." I said, looking back at him. I noticed his eyes, they were auburn. Then I blushed at the thought of him being so close. But the moment was interrupted by Team Idiot trying to take Pikachu again. And at the sight of them I got really mad.

"Where do you people get off?" I yelled, now standing up. At my sudden outburst, everyone is surprised.

"You losers practically ruined my day by kidnapping me and you're still at it? Somebody's going to pay dearly. Go Torchic!" I released my fire chicken. "Use ember!" I command.

"Tor-chic chic chic!" she released little bursts of fire, effectively charring them until I was satisfied.

"Nice Job May, I'll take it from here. Pikachu thunderbolt em'!" Ash said.

"PI-KA-CHU!" Thunderbolts coursed through their bodies, creating an explosion, sending them flying.

"Looks like Team Rockets blasting off again!" They disappeared in a flash of light.

"So that's Team Rocket huh? They made a bad first impression on me." I said.

"Yeah, I saw that. I've never seen you so mad before. Better get used to it cause they're going to be following us all the time." He said with a laugh.

"I don't see how it's funny. Anyway, let's get going okay?" I say walking off with my hands on my hips. "

Sure, whatever."

With that we continued our way to Rustboro City, the first Gym. Who knows what else will happen during that time. It's a new place with new possibilities we might even meet somebody new

**Kris: Ok so this was a decently sized chapter don't you think? **

**AJ: Yeah and Team Rocket was in it!**

**Mikey: There's still nothing exciting about them.**

**Kris: He has a point. Move along to chapter eight! I think It has something to do with either berries or Brendan.**

**Brendan: Me!**

**Kris: Haha yeah—wait, what are you doing here?**

**Mikey&AJ: Clearly trolling.**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	8. Berry, Berry, Bad

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! How's it going?**

**AJ: THIS. IS. POKEMON!**

**Mikey: What? Where did that come from?**

**AJ: I just watched 300. This is a pokemon story. Duh?**

**Mikey: -.-**

**Kris: Haha, you guys slay me.**

**Disclaimer: KrystalClear101 doesn't own pokemon.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 8

Berry, Berry, Bad

Normal POV

As nighttime approaches, we find our heroes as they continue on their way to Rustboro City. Although both trainers are tired, one in particular is a little cranky. Who am I kidding, she freaking hysterical!

"Ugh!" May grunted. "Can we stop? My Poochyena's are barking out of control!" She complained.

"But May? You don't have any Poochyena's." Ash laughed.

"You know what I mean." She glared at him.

"Anyways, we can stop when we get to the beach. How's that sound?" he asked.

"Oh finally! Last one there's a slowpoke!" She yelled running off.

"No fair! You got a head start!" He yelled in response. He started running after her, determined not to lose. Once he caught up with her, they both collapsed in the sand flat on their backs, fatigued.

"Next…time…I…want to…race,…give me…a shock…Pikachu." she said in between pants.

"Pika!" he chimed in giving a thumbs up.

"I second that!" Ash added. "Well it's getting dark." he sat up. "I'll setup camp, can you go look for food?"

"What?" she shot up. "More walking? Are you kidding me?"

"We have to eat May. If we don't, we'll be dead by sunset with our appetites." he concluded.

"Well when you put it that way….Okay, I'll go." She stood up dusting herself off. "But don't be surprised if I don't come back." she said walking off.

"Wait! Why wouldn't you come back?" Ash stopped her.

"Oh, I don't know? I might collapse from being, oh what are the words I'm looking for? Oh yeah, TIRED OUT OF THIS WORLD! That's a possibility."

"May you're too dramatic, just go! Oh wait! Let Torchic out."

"Why?" she asked.

"Duh May, I need it to start the fire!"

"Well whatever happened to good old sticks and rocks?" she joked.

"I'm not a caveman you know." he stated.

"Could've fooled me. Come out Torchic!" she threw the ball, releasing her starter.

"Torchic!" It chirped happily.

"Hey Torchic, you stay here and help Ash. I'm gonna go look for food, m'kay?" It nodded in agreement.

"I'm off!" she waved. She began to walk down the trail in search of food. "Food, food, food. Where is the food?" she said to herself. "What kind of food should I get? It really doesn't matter to me…"

She continued walking until she spotted an apple tree. "Alright! Apples! I'll just a take a couple of these." she picked six. "Three for me, three for him."

She kept on her way until she saw and Oran berry bush. "Oran Berries, cool! I'll pick a few of these. Maybe I should eat one, you know to make sure they're not gross." she popped one in her mouth and began to chew. "Oranny goodness! No nasty here!" she exclaimed.

May set her sights on getting back to camp. "I think this should be enough. Like there's ever enough for me and Ash." she laughed. On her way back she passed a Razz berry bush.

"Look! A Razz berry bush! Jackpot!" she went crazy picking berries off the bush. She practically picked every one. "I'll get one more. Huh? This isn't a Razz berry. What kind of berry is it?" she looked and saw a fuzzy blackish-grayish berry. "Oh well, the more the merrier!" She tugged hard on the berry and heard a yelp.

"Wait? Berries don't yelp. Uh oh…." Popping out of the bushes came a very angry Poochyena. "Hehehehe…..sorry about that." she apologized, nervously backing up. It growled at her. "So that's the way you want it? Go Wurmple!" she threw the ball.

Out came the worm pokemon.

"Wurmple, wur!" the battle started. Poochyena growled at Wurmple making it cringe.

"Be brave Wurmple, and use tackle!" Wurmple went as fast as a worm could and tackled Poochyena. It skidded back a few feet, but looked angrier than before. It charged towards Wurmple and gave it a tackle as well.

"Wurmple!" it cried as it tumbled in front of May's feet. "You okay Wurmple?" It nodded yes and struggled to get back up. The fight still in its eyes, Wurmple launched a string shot. The gooey string left Poochyena immobilized and yelping for help.

"Alright Wurmple! You did it!" she jumped up in praise. Once back down to earth, she noticed Wurmple had fainted. "You take a nice rest." she recalled it. Just then, three more Poochyena's appeared from the bushes to help the one May battled.

They all growled at May, inching closer. 'Oh crap! Torchic is with Ash and Wurmple just fainter. What am I going to do?' her back against the wall, May was getting scared.

"Umm….berry?"

"Hey Torchic, can you use your ember to light the fire?" Ash asked.

"Tor! Tor-chic!" it fired. With the group of sticks up in flames, Ash was satisfied.

"Thanks Torchic! Where is May? I'm starving!" his stomach growled, then a flock of bird pokemon scattered. Pikachu and Torchic sweat-dropped. "Do you guys think I should go look for her?" they shrugged.

He sighed. "Alright guys, let's go!" he took off abandoning the campsite (don't worry Smokey the Ursaring, he put out the fire!) He started following the path May took heading into the forest. "May! May! Where are you?" He searched, coming across a baron bush. "May must've been here. What's that?" he heard a rustling in the bushes. "May is that you?" He said quietly. He parted the bush to reveal.

"Ow!" he cringed. He looked up and saw a red and blue bird staring at him. "A pokemon? Cool! I wonder what kind it is?" he pulled out his pokedex and pointed it at the bird.

_"Taillow, the swallow pokemon. Although it is small, it is very courageous. It will take on a large Skarmory on an equal footing. However, its will weakens if it becomes hungry."_ it finished.

"Taillow huh? I'm going to catch it! Go Pikachu, use quick attack!" Pikachu acted at his command and shot quickly at Taillow knocking him down. Tailow got back up and pecked Pikachu continuously. "Alright Pikachu, give it a spark!" Pikachu sent sparks to Taillow and it came crashing down to earth, paralyzed.

"Now's my chance! Go pokeball!" he said throwing the ball. Taillow became incased and Ash watched intently, waiting to see if the pokemon was caught.

The shaking stopped and it made a ding sound indicating Taillow was the newest addition to the team.

"Yeah!" he posed.

"I caught a Tai-"

"Ah!" he was interrupted by a shrill scream.

"I didn't catch a Tai-Ah! Wait, that sounded like May!" he ran through the forest with Pikachu on his shoulder and Torchic at his heels.

May, now in a dangerous situation, was scared silly. "Let's not be hasty! Can't we talk this out? Or bark? Or whatever? Must everything end in violence?" her questions not being answered, May gave up. The Poochyena in the middle, the leader, made the first move and jumped at May. Just when all hope was lost…

"Pikachu thunderbolt!" she heard a voice.

"PI-KA-CHU!." Electricity went flying everywhere. The Poochyena's ran away with their tails between their legs.

"May, you alright?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine." she sighed a bit shaken up.

"What happened?"

"Well, I went crazy picking berries and I mistook a tail for a berry, and it all went downhill from there." she laughed nervously. "But I did get the food!" she giggled a bit out of control.

"Ehe, yeah! Great!" Ash laughed nervously_. 'This is gonna be an interesting journey, for sure!'_ he said to himself.

The two sat in front of the campfire gazing upon the stars that graced them with their presence. For a moment, they sat deep in their own thoughts, almost completely ignoring the other.

We find Ash deep in his memories. _'I wonder what all of my other friends are doing? Misty, Brock, Tracey, Gary,'_ he laughed. _'Gary…my rival. I finally beat him.'_ he recalled his previous journeys in different regions. _'Richie…where's he at? Guess we're not twins anymore.'_ he smiled gazing at his new attire. He switched his gaze to May in a sitting position looking up at the sky.

He began to think about her and his journey through Hoenn. _'That was some first meeting we had.'_ he smiled as he looked at her. _'She's different than Misty, that's for sure. She's been through a lot, I can tell. Hearing her story makes you feel sorry for her, but meeting her face to face is totally different.'_ he said remembering her confession.

We switch our attention to May who has hundreds of thoughts running through her head. _'I hope he doesn't think I can't take care of myself. Just because he saved me twice doesn't make him my knight in shining armor.'_ she sighed sadly, this catching the attention of Torchic.

She began to remember her life in Johto. _'I miss the radio tower, the huge mall, the game corner, the underground tunnels. I miss everything! And to think I was this close to getting my Eevee from Bill makes me even more upset!_' rage almost taking over, May slowly calmed down.

"Torchic!" she hopped in her lap.

"Hey Torchic. It's beautiful tonight isn't it?" she looked up at the stars. The moonlight glistening against her peachy skin, illuminating her sapphire eyes, reddening the cheeks of a stranger.

**Kris: Ha! This one was even longer than the last one. I'm proud of my fourteen year old self.**

**AJ: Dude, what if you could meet your fourteen year old self?**

**Kris: Then I'd tell you to become a nun.**

**Mikey: What? Why a nun?**

**Kris: I have my reasons…**

**AJ: O…kay?**

**Brendan: I wasn't in this! You lied!**

**Kris: I clearly said berries OR Brendan. I made no promises.**

**Mikey: She has a point.**

**AJ: A very valid point.**

**Brendan: Whatever! I better be in the next one or-**

**Kris: Or what?**

**Brendan: Bye!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	9. Almost There

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! I just love saying hihi. It brings joy to my soul.**

**AJ: Yo!**

**Mikey: 'Sup!**

**Kris: So, this is chapter nine, and as promised, or not, Brendan will be here!**

**Brendan: I'm the best part of the story.**

**Mikey: If you say so.**

**Kris: Disclaimer!**

**Brendan: KrystalClear101 does not own pokemon.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 9

Almost There

_'Just a few more miles!'_ is what I kept telling myself. _'__Almost__there.'_ It seems like it's taking forever to get to Rustboro. It's been what, three days since we left, and we're just now getting into Petalburg woods. Is it me? Him? Why is this taking so long! And it's boring me to tears! I thought traveling was supposed to be fun and exciting, but this is torture! I sigh.

"What's the matter May?" he asked catching whiff of my grief. (Check out my new word! 'whiff!' I was such a noob back then.-Kris)

"I'm so bored! Is there anything to do?" I complain.

"We could train if you want." he suggested.

"Oh, how do you do that?" I asked. Apparently that was a dumb question, because he fell over. "Um…are you okay?"

"You mean you don't know how to train?" he asked.

"Seeing as I'm a beginning trainer, that would be a no!" I said in frustration.

"You know, you are really testy. Try to relax more." he added.

"Sorry. I'm just so darn bored!"

"Find a way to entertain yourself then." He shrugged with a smile.

I sighed again. What could I do to make myself 'not bored? Hmmm….I know!

"Pop!" I made popping noises with my mouth. "Pop!….Pop!….Pop!" I could see Ash flinching every time I did it. Hey! This is fun! "Pop!" He threw up his hands and sighed.

"You've watched that movie too many times!" he exclaimed, whatever that means.

"What movie?" I asked innocently. I started to giggle. "I'm not bored anymore! Hey! You want to play a game of I-spy?" I asked eagerly.

"Sure, why not? I'll go first. I spy with my little eye, something…yellow." he said.

"Um…is it those flowers?" I guess.

"Nope." he smiled.

This is hard! "What about my fanny pack?"

"Nu uh." it grew.

"Okay…..Hey! That pokemon over there!" I had to be right.

"Aw man! Okay your turn." He sighed.

"Alright! I spy with my little eye, something white." I had it all planned out.

"Hmmm…..is it that pokemon right there?" he guessed. WRONG!

I shook my head. "Well, what about that flower?" WRONG!

"No." I said happily. I could tell he was getting annoyed.

"Fine I give up, what is it?" he asked angrily.

"It's that guy's hair over there!" I pointed to guy wearing red and black with white hair.

"Whoa! He has white hair? That's…interesting." he said in a disturbed tone. The guy with white hair turns around to face us and I can see him turn red. All of the sudden my face heats up too for some reason.

He starts walking toward us and with every step he takes I feel warmer.

_'What the heck is going on? Why do I feel so warm?_' I ask myself. He stops when he's about four feet in front of us.

"Hi, my name's Brendan. Are you guys lost?" he asks. Up close he's kind of cute.

"Well, yeah we are." Ash admitted sheepishly.

"I can show you the way out if you'd like." he offered. Either he's really, really, dumb or really, really, nice. Offering directions to strangers and all.

"That'd be great! By the way, my name's Ash." he said.

"I'm May." I manage to get out of my mouth, still a bit pink in the cheeks.

"Alright Ash and May, follow me." he went ahead of us and led the way. "So, you're heading to Rustboro?" he asked.

"If that's where the next gym is, then yeah!" Ash said excitedly. He must really love pokemon battles.

"So this must be your first time through Hoenn then?" he said.

"Yep. I'm a new trainer while Ash has been a trainer for a while. So you must've already gone through Hoenn?" I say.

"Yep, you're right." he nodded. Gosh I'm smart.

"What are you still doing here then?" Ash asked.

"I'm helping my dad with pokemon research." he said.

"Really? Who's your dad?" I ask. (Kris: Haha! Who's your daddy? Suchanoob!)

"My dad? He's Prof. Birch." He answered with a sly smile.

"What?" me and Ash say.

"Prof. Birch is your dad?" I see no family resemblance.

"Why are you so shocked? It's not that big of a difference, is it?"

We nod simultaneously.

"Wow." he scratched his head. "I never really noticed." at that, me and Ash both fall over. Since when did I learn how to do that?

"Well since you've already been through Hoenn, you must've met my dad then." I say.

"Yeah? Who is he?" he asked looking directly at me.

"The Petalburg Gym Leader, Norman." Oh! I said my dad's first name! I'm going to get in so much trouble! Not!

"Your dad is the Petalburg City Gym Leader?" didn't I just say that? "That's so awesome! I got to admit though, your dad was tough." he said with a smug smile.

I looked over in Ash's direction and looked at his facial expression. I could already tell that he was uncomfortable with the conversation, so I quickly changed the subject.

"So, umm, Brendan? What's with the white hair?" I just had to know.

"What was that?" And he ignored me. Jerk.

"Oh nothing! It was nothing at all." I answered nervously.

"Oh. Hey, we're out of the woods!" Oh finally! Civilization!

"Alright! Almost there!" Ash said excitedly. Where has he been all this time?

"Yeah, _almost_ there." I said smugly.

"Well, I'll be seeing you guys around, I've gotta get back to the lab." He said, dusting something off his shoulder before heading back into the woods.

"See ya Brendan, and thanks!" we both wave.

"Bye Guys!" he waved back.

"Next stop, Rustboro City and my first badge! Shouldn't be much longer now." he added.

"We're _almost_there, but not there yet." I sigh. It's still taking too long! Oh well.

**Kris: Ok! For the record, Brendan does not have white hair. It's just a cap that looks like hair.**

**Mikey: But later on in the story-**

**AJ: Don't give away the plot!**

**Mikey: Ok, I won't. Geez…**

**Brendan: I'm so awesome.**

**AJ: You totes had a crush on May though, haha.**

**Kris: That you did, sir.**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	10. The Blind Leading the Blind

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! SUPER SURPRISE! I bet you though I'd never update this story huh?**

**AJ: It's the apocalypse! Run!**

**Mikey: The world is ending!**

**Kris: Are you done?**

**AJ&Mikey: Pretty much, yeah.**

**Kris: Okay well at the moment my writers block has left the building so…um…yeah…here goes.**

**Disclaimer: KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon.**

**All: Enjoy!**

Chapter 10

The Blind Leading the Blind

Great! This is wonderful! Just when I thought we were out of the woods, Sherlock got us lost again. This is really sad. It's like he has no sense of direction what so ever. I really can't talk though…whatever! Ugh! I'm gonna die if I don't sleep in a bed soon!

'Rustboro City here I come!' Pfft. Yeah right, more like 'Wait for me!' Alright May just try to see the good in this…who am I kidding? There is no good! Do I even want to get a badge? Does he know that I'm totally clueless when it comes to battling? Who cares?

"I guess I got us lost again huh?" he grinned sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it, we'll get out of here…eventually." I said in hushed tones.

"So, are you excited about the first gym?" he asked me.

"I don't know what to expect, being a new trainer and all." I replied.

"Don't worry May, just work hard and do your best and everything will fall into place." How does he make me smile?

"Thanks Ash, I guess I needed that." I smiled in return.

"Uh…May?" he started.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Thanks for today." He said shyly. I looked at him confused.

"What do you mean? I didn't do…oh, you're welcome." He was talking about the conversation about our dads. I knew I needed to change the subject seeing how it affected his mood.

All of the sudden he just stopped.

"What?" I asked.

"Wow." Was all he said.

"What is it?" I asked again.

"Big…tree." Some vocabulary.

"Huh?" Now I'm confused.

"Huge Tree!" and it just gets better.

"What are you talking about?" Then I noticed it. This HUGE tree smack dab in the middle of the forest. "Wow." Now he's got me doing it! "Hey!" light bulb! "What if we climb the tree to find our way out of here?" I am so smart.

"Great idea! Let's go!" We both head towards the humongous tree with Ash in front.

"Hey! Slow down!" I yelled ahead.

"What's wrong May? Am I going too fast for you!" I noticed how he dragged that 'you' out slow.

"Ash? You okay?" I slowly approached where he last stood.

"Ah!" I almost slipped off the edge. I spotted Ash at the bottom of this trench like thing with the roots of the HUGE tree sticking out.

"You okay? Ash? Pikachu?" a thumbs up is what I received. I cautiously slid down the hill, trying to avoid the same fate as him. "Wow, this is really deep." I said looking around.

"Yeah, and that was a long drop." He rubbed his head.

"Why do you always seem to be falling into holes?" I joked and he rolled his eyes.

"Well here's the tree. Do you want to climb, or should I?" he looked at me.

"I'll climb." I was being a dare devil, but I used to climb trees all the time back in Johto, but not one as big as this.

"Be careful!" he yelled as I continued to climb, stopping at the first branch.

"Can you see anything?" he asked. I looked around, to the left, right, and again.

"I see it! Rustboro! It's that way!" I pointed to the left.

"Great job May! Now you can come down." He said. While I was making my way down my foot slipped when I was about five feet from the ground. I fell and landed right in his arms.

He had his arms wrapped around my waist protectively. At the moment I could feel my face heat up as I was gaining a new color to my cheeks.

"I'm beginning to think you're a bit clumsy May." He released me and laughed a little.

"Heh, sorry about that." I grinned sheepishly.

"It's okay." He smiled. "So you said Rustboro is that way? Let's go." He proceeded to make his way out the hole when a blur of green came out of nowhere, bounced off his head, and knocked him off his feet.

"Hey!" he yelled in protest.

"What's that?" I say pulling out my pokédex.

"Treecko, the gecko pokémon. It lives in large groups in the forest often acting as its protector." The pokédex explained.

"Treecko huh? It's a pretty cool pokémon." I said.

"Treecko." It smirked with a twig in its mouth. "Arrogant too." I said.

"I'm going to catch it! Go Pikachu!" he commanded. Pikachu sprang off his shoulder and got in a battle ready stance. "Get ready to take some notes May." He smirked. "Let's start things off with quick attack!" Pikachu charged at lightning speed toward the wild Treecko and tackled it with full force.

"Tree!" it cried in pain. It struggled to stand back up and glared at Pikachu. It ran in our direction and slammed its tail across Pikachu's left cheek.

"That's a pound attack!" I said. I might be a new trainer but I'm not entirely clueless.

"Use thunder Pikachu!" Ash said.

"Pi-ka-chu!" the sparks flying from its cheeks, it sent a yellow dancing beam at Treecko.

"Direct hit!" I said excitedly. But my happiness subsided when Treecko got back up, almost totally unaffected by the attack.

"What?" I asked.

"Darn! Electric type attacks aren't very effective on grass types." He cursed.

"Oh…" I said in reply.

"Try another quick attack!" he said. Again, Pikachu charged at Treecko but this time it jump and hit Pikachu from behind with its tail sending the yellow pokémon into the tree head first.

"Pikachu, while it's in the air, use thunderbolt!" This confused me.

_'Why is he using thunderbolt if it's not going to do anything?_' I ask myself. It struck Treecko and it fell to the ground. To my surprise it looked exhausted and tiny sparks were around its body.

"But how?" I asked confused.

"The electricity becomes more effective if the grass type is airborne." He explained before reaching into his pack and pulling a red and white ball.

"Go pokéball!" Ash threw the ball and it hit Treecko and engulfed the pokémon in a red beam of light. The ball landed on the ground and began to shake. When it stopped, a bell like noise was heard.

"Alright! I caught a Treecko!" He cheered.

"Pika!" he jumped up as well.

"Great job Ash!" I congratulated him.

"Thanks May. We should go now." He suggested as we both started climbing out of the hole.

"Hey May?" he started.

"I bet you get a kick out of that saying words that rhyme with my name don't you?" I asked smiling.

"It is kind of fun." He said.

"So, what did you want to ask me?" I asked curiously.

"What type of pokémon do you think the gym leader might have?" I shrug.

"I don't know." I answer simply. Getting bored I start to think of things that rhyme with his name.

_'Let's see…bash, cash, dash, gash, hash, lash, mash, rash, sash, trash, wash…wait, that doesn't rhyme. Hmm…crash, thrash…what else? Fast? It kinda rhymes. What about-'_

"Hello? Earth to May? Anyone home?" he waved his hands in my face.

"Wha?" I asked snapping out of thoughts.

"We're out of the forest now." I perked up.

"Yay!" I cheered.

"If we hurry we could make it to Rustboro before lunch." He said.

"Then let's go!" I said.

"Not so fast!" we heard a voice.

"Huh?" I turned to see a boy with a plain white tee-shirt, blue denim short, sneakers and a backwards blue cap on.

"I challenge you to a battle." He said.

"Who?" Ash asked.

"The girl." I can feel my heart start beating really fast.

"Uh…okay. One on one?" I asked uneasily.

"Yeah. Go Zigzagoon!" he threw a pokéball releasing this brown dog-like pokémon.

"Come out Torchic!" I threw mine as well, releasing my starter.

"Use tackle Zigzagoon!" he commanded.

"Dodge it and use scratch Torchic!" Acted on command, Torchic stepped to the side and let Zigzagoon run pass her, jumped up and scratched it with her talons.

"Great! Now try an ember attack!" I shouted. Little red beams fired from her mouth and burned the canine.

"Zagoon!" it cried.

"Hang in there and use growl!" it got onto its feet growled menacing at Torchic, making her cringe.

"Don't be scared Torchic, let's finish this with a tackle." I was hoping for the best. She charged at the Zigzagoon and rammed it into a nearby tree.

"Goon…" it slid to the ground with swirls in its eyes.

"Aw my Zigzagoon! Return! You're pretty good." He said handing my some money.

"Thanks!" I replied happily.

"Bye!" he waved walking toward the city.

"I won my very first pokémon battle!" I cheered hugging my Torchic.

"Great battle May. You won on your first try." He patted me on the shoulder.

"Thanks Ash." I smiled. There he goes again. There's just something about him. His attitude. It makes me feel like I can do anything. We walked the rest of the way to Rustboro with Torchic copying from Pikachu being perched onto my shoulder.

"Do you like it there?" I asked her.

"Yeah! You can see a lot from up here!" I stopped.

"You! You just talked!" I said in shock.

"Um…yeah, so did you." She said tilting her head.

"But how? Pokémon can't talk!" I answered. "Who told you that? We talk all the time. Like now!" I gawked in surprise. Ash noticed I wasn't walking anymore and made his way over to me.

"What's up May?" he asked raising his eyebrows at me.

"T-torchic is talking!" I pointed to her. He laughed at me and Torchic joined in. "And what is so funny?" I placed my hands on my hips.

"Of course Torchic can talk! When you have a strong bond with pokémon, you begin to understand what they're saying." He explained. "You and Torchic must be really close. Usually it takes at least a month or two, but it only took you a couple weeks." I nodded.

"Oh…" I blushed out of embarrassment. He just laughed again.

"No need to be embarrassed. I didn't know that either. And I freaked out way more than you did." He explained.

"Well I feel a little bit better." I smiled, but strangely the blush never left my face.

Ash and I walked into the city and the entire time, Torchic and I were talking.

"But dad was only gym leader for a sort time, then we moved here. The next day I met Ash over here and we kind of bumped heads. Then I got you and Ash and I started traveling together, and here we are." I explained.

"So, is there anything going on between you and Ash?" she asked slyly.

"I think I liked it better when I couldn't understand you." I stated dully.

"Well?" she asked again. Then both of our stomach's growled.

"I think it's lunch time!" Phew! I eased my way out of that situation but by the looks of things, she wasn't giving up that easily.

"Once we get to the pokémon center well eat, how's that sound?" he asked.

"Sounds great, I'm really hungry." I rubbed my stomach.

"That's breaking news…" Torchic muttered.

"I resent that." I answered back.

"I have a feeling they're going to be best friends, huh buddy?" I heard Ash say to Pikachu.

"Pika Pi!" it exclaimed.

Soon we came across this wooden bridge that led the way to the entrance of the city. And it was huge! Well, bigger than Petalburg anyway. The pokémon center was located on west side of town, but still kind of in the center.

"Hey nurse Joy. Could you heal our pokémon and give us a room please?" He said as we approached the counter putting both Pikachu and Torchic up there.

"What do you say we battle the gym leader tomorrow?" he asked. I turned my head swiftly.

"…I don't think I'm ready yet." I looked down.

"You don't? Maybe you need to train." He suggested.

"I wouldn't know where to start." I grinned sheepishly.

"After we eat, we'll have a training session. How's that sound?" I perked up.

"Sure, that'll be fine." Smiling again. I wonder what'll happen at this training session? It makes me wonder.

**Kris: This is probably the longest chapter of this story huh?**

**AJ: Yeah, you've improved.**

**Kris: Really? You are too kind.**

**Mikey: She's not kind enough if you ask me.**

**AJ: Well we didn't ask you so…**

**Mikey: See**

**Kris: You guys are too funny. Well, I hope you enjoyed the SUPER SURPRISE! I don't know when I'll post chapter 11, probably next year or somewhere close to that, JK**

**AJ: In your case, next year is an understatement**

**Kris: And the kindness is gone…**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

Revision: 05.20.12


	11. One Weird Day

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! SUPER SURPRISE…uh…NUMBER TWO!**

**AJ: Uh…the apocalypse is uh…back!**

**Mikey: Yeah so…run!**

**Kris: Very enthusiastic guys, very.**

**AJ&Mikey: Shut up!**

**Kris: Testy much? Well, I'm surprising you again with another chapter of this story.**

**May: Hey! I'm in this story too! I'm a star!**

**AJ: No fair! She's in all of your stories!**

**May: Nuh uh!**

**AJ: Name one that you're not in.**

**May: Kris's Naruto story**_**What I Never Heard**___**so ha!**

**AJ: -grumbles-**

**Kris: Stop arguing! I am not the owner of pokémon! Lots of exclamation points! Enjoy!**

Chapter 11

One Weird Day

"Let's eat, I'm starving." I rubbed my abdomen.

"What else is new…" Torchic rolled her eyes being perched on my shoulder.

"Again, I resent that." I glared at my starter.

"We still have food left over from what you found in the forest. If we eat on the way to the training ground, we'll save time." Ash said searching through his backpack.

"Oh all right." I grumbled…or was that my stomach. "So…how do you train exactly?" I asked.

"First you have to see where you're at as a trainer. After you know where you stand, you need to work out the kinks in your battling style. Next is trying to find new ways to make it better as well." He finished…I think. "But today we'll just work on seeing where you are, but judging by the way you battled that kid you're pretty good." I smiled proudly.

"Why thank you." Torchic rolled her eyes again.

"I don't know why you're getting all the props, I did most of the work." She smirked at me.

"You might think that, but from now on we're a team. Okay?" I said.

"Yeah!" she perked up.

"I should probably train that Wurmple I have huh?" I pondered.

"Yeah you should." Torchic said.

"Come out Wurmple!" I threw the ball and it released my worm pokémon.

"Hiya!" he said sliding back and forth.

"I can understand you too?" I asked.

"If you can understand me, then you can understand any pokémon that you catch." Torchic explained jumping off my shoulder to talk to Wurmple. "You should've seen the way she acting when she found out that I could talk. She went ballistic!" Torchic said.

"Really? Darn I missed it." He would've snapped his fingers if he had any.

"Ha ha, laugh it up you guys." I said sarcastically. "Eat up and then we'll start training. Okay?" I explained giving both of them two bowls of pokémon food.

"Why does pokémon food look like rat pellets?" Torchic asked.

"What's a rat?" Wurmple responded.

"You guys are nuts." I laughed switching my gaze to Ash and his pokémon. He was happily feeding his new acquired Treecko who seemed to have a bit of an attitude problem, to say the least. But he ate the pokémon food just like Tailow and Pikachu.

"Enjoy it guys." He smiled.

"He really loves his pokémon." I muttered under my breath.

"You know only weirdos stare May." Torchic smirked.

"Are you a weirdo May?" Wurmple asked innocently.

"No! I am not a weirdo! And I was not staring, just…taking a quick glance, that's all." Who knew you'd have to defend yourself against pokémon.

"Yeah, right…" Torchic stifled a laugh.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes in defeat.

"Are you ready May?" Ash asked me, dusting off his pants.

"Sure." We walked over to an open area nearby where we set up our little lunch.

"Okay, go Tailow." He called for his swallow pokémon.

"Tailow's going to have an advantage over Wurmple, but never the less…I guess. Go Wurmple!" I called for my red worm-like pokémon.

"What?" he said absentmindedly.

"It's time to battle, come on." I called again. He slowly squirmed his way over to in front of me.

"You're using Wurmple?" Ash asked from the other side of the field.

"Yep. I might have a slight disadvantage but I only used Wurmple once ever since I caught him so…" I explained.

"Okay it's your choice." He said. "Let's start things off with quick attack Tailow!" he yelled the first attack.

"Use string shot!" I called out. Tailow was coming closer at a fast pace, but Wurmple fired a gooey string-like substance that wrapped around Tailow's midsection, stopping it in mid-flight.

"Take this opportunity and use Tackle!" He wiggled over to the fallen Tailow and charged at it, knocking it back a few feet.

"Focus your energy Tailow!" Tailow closed its eyes and focused.

"Try a poison sting Wurmple!" I tried to use this time to the best of my abilities while Tailow was out for the moment. And Wurmple fired little purple lines at Tailow creating a small cloud.

"Break through and use peck!" Ash called out and it attacked. With ease, it broke through the string shot and was aiming its beak and Wurmple and hit it head on. It tumbled back and few feet and cried out.

"You okay Wurmple?" I asked. He nodded and got back in a battle stance.

"String shot again!" Please work!

"Dodge and use quick attack!" Tailow flew to the left and dive bombed Wurmple.

"Wurmple!" I cried out as it tumbled back again. It looked very fatigued but still battle ready.

"You're doing good May!" Ash yelled.

"Come on Wurmple, you can do it." I encouraged it as he stood once more.

"Alright! Use poison sting then go into string shot!" I commanded. Again, he fired the purple lines, which Tailow dodged, but by doing that he ran right into the string shot. "Tackle!" I said with a flash of confidence in my eyes.

"Try to break through!" Ash yelled. Tailow struggled in the wrap and got out a little too late. Wurmple hit its target and sent it tumbling backwards. "Are you okay Tailow?" Ash asked. It got back up and chirped. "Let's finish this off with another peck attack!" Tailow dive bombed Wurmple again and fell on its side with swirls in its eyes.

"Oh no, Wurmple…" I bent down and picked him up in my arms.

"Sorry May…" he muttered.

"It's okay, I'm just glad you did your best." I answered back.

"I'm proud of you. You did great." I stood up and Ash was making way over to me with Tailow flying around his head.

"Great battle May, you almost beat me. One more tackle and it would've been over." He smiled.

"Thanks Ash. Now what?" I asked as we walked back over to where Pikachu and the other pokémon were.

"Now, let's talk strategy. Using string shot to trap Tailow and then using tackle was really smart. You just need to use defensive attacks, especially when you have a type disadvantage." He explained.

"Okay, so where am I as a trainer?" he pondered and moment before answering.

"I'd say you're past the rookie level and now you're intermediate. Not the greatest but you're not the worst. That's pretty good considering that you just started." I smiled.

"Wow. I'm an intermediate trainer!" I cheered.

"Come on we should go to the pokémon center and get Wurmple healed. Treecko! Tailow! Return!" he recalled them.

"You too Wurmple, take a nice rest. Hop on Torchic." She jumped onto my shoulder.

"How'd the battle go?" she asked me.

"It went just fine. Even though I lost." She looked at me sadly.

"How's the worm guy?" she asked.

"Worm guy? He's okay, a rest at the pokémon center is all he needs right now." I answered.

"That's good…now what are we going to do?" she's just full of questions today.

"I don't know. Hey Ash? What are we going to do for the rest of the day?" I asked him.

"How about we visit the Devon Corp.? I read in the guide books that that's the place they make the coolest gadgets and stuff." He suggested.

"Sounds good to me. But let's go to the pokémon center first." He nodded as we walked in.

"Nurse Joy, could heal my Wurmple?" I set his pokéball on the counter.

"And my Tailow too?" he followed suit.

"Sure, come back for them later." She gave her famous smiled as we thanked her and walked out.

"Where is it?" he pulled out the guidebook and started flipping through the book.

"Hmm…hold on a sec." I peered from behind his shoulder to take a look.

"Do you see it?" he turned to ask me. I shook my head and kept looking.

"There!" I pointed and a yellow dot on the map with my right hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go!" he ran ahead.

"What is with this guy and running?" I asked Torchic while chasing after Ash. She shrugged and clinged tightly to my shirt.

"Help! Someone help me!" I heard a manly voice.

"Huh? I turned and saw a guy in a green suit sweating and biting his nails.

"Hey mister? Is something wrong?" I asked walking up to him.

"Are you a trainer?" he asked frantically.

"Um, yeah?" I answered nervously.

"Please help me! A guy in a pirate costume stole some very important information from me and I need it." He shook my shoulders.

"Okay, okay! I'll help you. Which way did he go?" I asked him.

"He went that way. Thank you so much." He bowed.

"Sure…weirdo." I muttered under my breath. The guy pointed to the north exit of the city and went running in that direction. On my way I saw Ash walking while a disappointed look on his face.

"Ash!" I called out to him he looked up and ran over to me.

"What's up May?" he asked.

"This man asked me to help him get some papers back that were stolen from him. You want to help?" I asked him.

"Sure." He said in a sad tone.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"They won't let anyone in without an ID." He said in an angry tone.

"I'm sorry Ash. Now come on!"

**Kris: Cliffhanger!**

**AJ: Oh!**

**Kris: …**

**AJ: What?**

**Mikey: Humpty Dumpty sat on a way, humpty dumpty had a great fall. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!**

**Kris&AJ:?**

**Mikey: Cake & Fries!**

**Kris: That explains it. Okay, you read about May and Ash's practice, Wurmple can talk too, and now when introduce the guy in the green suit and the pirate that robbed him.**

**AJ: Argh!**

**Mikey: Pirates of the Caribbean!**

**Kris: Idiot, anyway…yeah. OH! I uploaded a new video on YouTube. You guys have to check it out! Advanceshipping of course!**

**AJ: Check it out if you haven't already!**

**Kris: See you!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	12. Team Pirate

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Super surprise…number…what is it three?**

**AJ: Yep. The world's gonna end…and…stuff.**

**Mikey: Run…**

**Kris: Enthusiasm guys.**

**AJ: Enthusa who?**

**Kris: Never mind AJ, never mind. Hey Mikey, I know how to get AJ in trouble.**

**Mikey: How?**

**Kris: Watch. AJ, cake & fries.**

**AJ: Cake & fries? Where? I love cake & fries! They're so awesome because they taste so good. I could eat all the cake and all the fries in the world if I could because it's totally awesome! I'll say it five times. Cake & fries, Cake & fries, Cake & fries, Cake & fries, Cake & fries!**

**May: Ashley Joanne Ketchum! What did I say about the Cake & fries? That's it! Lisa!**

**AJ: NO!**

**Kris&Mikey: Haha!**

**Disclaimer: That is so funny! Lol.**

**All: Aren't you going to…you know.**

**Disclaimer: Just because I happen to pop up doesn't mean I'll do it.**

**All: …**

**Disclaimer: …FINE! KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon. You guys suck!**

**All: Enjoy!**

Chapter 12

Team Pirate?

"A guy in a pirate suit? I didn't know there were still pirates around." Ash pondered to himself.

"Me either. Anyways, these papers are apparently really important otherwise the pirate wouldn't have stolen them and the guy in the green suit wouldn't have freaked out. So we have to get them back." I said, man I talk too much.

"I bet he went in this cave up ahead." Ash pointed to a cave.

"You're probably right. What kind of pokémon do you think this pirate will have?" I asked. "Water would be a good guess, I mean pirates sail the seas last time I checked." He pondered again.

"When's the last time you checked?" I asked.

"Can't remember." He scratched his head and grinned. Outside of the cave was an old man who looked uneasy about something.

"Please be alright Peeko…" I heard him whimper.

"Excuse me sir, but is something the matter?" Ash asked him concerned.

"Yes, a pirate stole my Wingull and ran into this cave." He explained. He looked like he was gonna have a heart-attack, or close to it.

"Don't worry, we'll get your Wingull back." I said confidently.

"Oh thank you so much!" he bowed in gratitude.

"Come on May, let's go." Ash led the way into the cave.

"It's really murky in here and smell isn't too great either." I commented.

"Stupid bird…" we heard someone mutter.

"Did you hear that?" Ash turned to me. I nodded and we kept moving.

"There's the pirate! He doesn't look like a real pirate. Where's his peg-leg?" I asked.

"Yeah and his eye-patch. You think he stole the Wingull because he wanted a parrot?" he asked me and I shrugged.

"What are you kiddies doing in here?" he asked in a deep voice.

"You stole something very valuable. Now hand it over!" Ash ordered as Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and made sparks fly from his cheeks.

"You think I'm going to let a little kid and his Pikachu order me around? Hmph! Go Poochyena!" he released a grey puppy.

"Mischievous mutts…" I muttered under my breath.

"Go Pikachu! Use quick attack!" Ash commanded.

"Poochyena, dodge it and use tackle!" the pirate guy said. Pikachu dashed towards the canine with blinding speed and rammed into Poochyena, who was unable to dodge.

"Pooch!" it ran into a nearby rock.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash said.

"Pika-chu!" electrical currents shot in and out of Pikachu's body as it struck Poochyena.

"Poochyena! Use tackle!" The pirate said again as the dog ran into Pikachu.

"Pika!" it cried sliding across the ground.

"Finish this with another quick attack." In a matter of seconds, Pikachu ran across the ground and rammed into Poochyena once more. It landed with a thud and appeared unconscious. It was then that I spotted the Wingull up high above the ground, obviously scared of the pirate.

"You get the papers, and I'll get Wingull." I said to Ash and he nodded in response.

"Take the stupid papers, and the bird. They're useless to me anyway." The pirate threw the papers and made a run for the exit after returning his fallen Poochyena.

"Great! We got the papers. Good battle Pikachu!" Ash congratulated him.

"Pika, pika!" it said rejoining him on his shoulder.

In the meanwhile, I was having some trouble getting Wingull down.

"Come on, don't be scared. We're here to take you back to your trainer. So come down please." I tried to reason with it, but I guess it was too scared.

_'Darn…'_ I started to climb up the rocky part of the wall in order to reach it. "You know…you're making me go through a lot of trouble…right?" I was sort of struggling to get up there but I finally made it.

"Okay, will you come down now?" I smiled. It looked at me uneasily but finally chirped happily.

"Wingull!" Then it had the nerve to fly down to the ground leaving me up there.

"Why you little…" I had to struggle again to get back down.

"Stupid Wingull…making me climb all the way up there…just so it could fly down." I muttered to myself. I landed on the ground in front of Ash, who was looking at me weirdly.

"Why'd you climb up there May?" he asked.

"The Wingull was up there, and it wasn't coming down. When I got up there, it just flew down. I think it did it on purpose." I glared at it. It just chirped and perched itself on my shoulder the way Torchic does.

"Well, I got the papers and you got the Wingull, so let's go." Ash led the way out of the cave.

"So, I don't think we was a pirate, do you?" I asked.

"No he was from Team Aqua." Ash explained.

"Team Aqua? What's that?" I asked petting the Wingull.

"How should I know? He just said he was from Team Aqua and then he ran." We made it outside as I was pummeled by an overly excited old man.

"Peeko, my darling! You're all right! I was so worried." He hugged it.

"Wing-gull…" it hugged back. "Ow…" I rubbed my bottom.

"Oh…sorry lassie. Thank you both for saving my Peeko. My name is Mr. Briney. I live just outside of Petalburg City. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Goodbye kids!" he waved as he walked back toward the city.

"Bye Mr. Briney!" we both shouted.

"Now all we have to do is get these papers back to the guy in the green suit." Ash said. We walked back into to town and I spotted the guy in the green suit looking very pale in the face.

"Um, mister? We got your papers back." I tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped.

"What! Oh! Thank you so much! You don't know what this means to me! I have to reward you, please come with me!" he dragged us to the Devon corp. building.

"Yes! We get to see the inside." Ash said, he was obviously happy about his chance to get inside.

"You have to meet the president so he can thank you for your help." He pushed us in his office.

"Okay?" I said scratching my head.

"You must be the trainers that retrieved my very important documents." He said. We nodded. He was an aged man with whitish and silverish hair. "My name is Devon Stone. Please call me Mr. Stone. Let me show me gratitude by rewarding you both with state of the art pokénavigators, PokéNav for short." He pulled with mechanical looking hand-held things.

"Thank you Mr. Stone." Ash said taking his.

"Thanks a lot." I took mine too. It was red with white stripes on it and his was blue with black stripes.

"Hey! It matches!" I pointed out.

"Not only does it match but there's map installed and also a match call, which allows you to call anyone anywhere as long as their number is installed in there." He explained.

"Cool." We smiled at each other.

"So, where are you headed?" he asked.

"We were going to challenge the gym leader tomorrow and then head to wherever the next gym is." Ash explained.

"The next gym is on Dewford Island. If you're going there would you mind delivering a package to someone named Steven?" he asked.

"Sure, no problem." I said.

"Very good. Here you go. Thank you again and good luck with your gym battle, I'll see you kids later." He said with a smile.

"Thanks for the PokéNav Mr. Stone! Bye!" we waved walking out of his office. We made it outside with smiles on our faces.

"This is so cool. A PokéNav just for us." I said happily.

"Yeah, these are pretty cool huh?" Ash said.

"It's getting late. Where do you want to eat?" he asked.

"I don't know. Do you want to eat out?" I asked.

"Sure. I'll use my PokéNav to see where the closest restaurant is." He said proudly.

"There! Just down this street. Let's go, I'm starving!" He rubbed his stomach.

"Me too. That little lunch wasn't enough for me." I smiled walking next to him. This white light come from my belt and out popped my Torchic.

"It gets kind of boring in there you know." I looked at her, surprised.

"You can't just pop out whenever you want to you know." I said.

"Uh, I just did. So what's up?" she jumped onto my shoulder.

"We're going out to eat." I explained.

"A date?" she looked at me slyly.

"No, not a date. We're going to a restaurant." I said.

"Where dates happen?" she asked again.

"How do you know all this? You're still pretty young." I asked.

"I'm smart for my age. Plus I've heard some things that I should've and I'm not repeating it either. Thy ears are too young." She laughed.

"Whatever. Ash and I are not on a date. We're just hungry, which shouldn't be that much of a surprise." She rolled her eyes.

"…and it isn't…" I sighed.

"Plus we're tired of the pokémon center food anyway. So we're eating out. Oh! Look at what the president of the Devon corp. gave us!" I pulled out my new PokéNav.

"Oh! Pretty! What is it?" she asked, pecking it.

"Stop! It's a PokéNav. It's totally cool." I said beaming.

"Awesome." I returned Torchic as soon as we reached the restaurant but not before she said 'Have fun on your date.' And she emphasized _date_.

We sat at a booth by the window and looked at the menu.

"So…you're from Pallet Town right?" I asked starting a conversation.

"Yep." He answered.

"What's it like there?" I asked curiously.

"It's really small and quiet. Not at a lot happens there." He explained.

"Oh, did you have many friends?" I'm so curious.

"Yeah I guess. I had one friend but he became my rival after we started our journeys." He said.

"Rival? Why?" Maybe I'm nosy.

"I don't know. I final beat him at the silver conference though." He smiled.

"That's good. So what are you getting?" I asked.

"Probably a cheeseburger and some fries. What about you?" I pondered before asking.

"Noodles and eggrolls." I answered. "I love ramen! It's the best." I said smiling.

"I almost forgot!" He jumped across the table and gave Pikachu the ketchup bottle.

"Here you go buddy." I looked at him curiously.

"Pikachu loves ketchup." He scratched his head. I smiled at the scene.

"Is Pikachu your first pokémon?" I asked.

"Yep. We've been together ever since the beginning. At first it was a little bumpy but we worked things out because we never stopped believing in each other." he scratched him between the ears.

"That's really nice Ash. I hope Torchic and I will have a relationship like that one day." I said looking down at my belt.

"I'm sure you will May." He smiled at me and I smiled back. I guess I have to get used to his smile.

**Later…**

"Thanks for paying Ash." I said as we walked down the dimly lit streets of Rustboro.

"No problem May." He smiled.

"It's late. We better go to the pokémon center, don't you think so?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll race you." He challenged me.

"Oh, I don't plan on losing." I said smirking.

"Neither do I. Ready…Set…Go!" we both took off for the pokémon center and lightning speed. Okay so I'm exaggerating a bit. We reached the pokémon center at the same time, both tired and panting.

"Tie." He said pushing open to door let me go first.

"Thanks." I led the way to our two-bed bedroom with a TV.

"I'm going to go to bed May. See you in the morning. Goodnight." He laid down.

"Goodnight Ash." I said lying on my bed turning on the TV. There was a prerecorded show on that looked interesting.

"Pokémon contest? What's this?" Two white lights appeared and out came my two pokémon.

"What is with you guys and letting yourselves out?" I asked surprised.

"What are you watching, May?" Wurmple asked me.

"It's a pokémon contest. Pretty cool huh?" I said.

"I'll say! That's so awesome. How do you play?" Torchic jumped up and down.

"I don't know, but it does look like fun." I said.

"Can I play?" Wurmple asked.

"I don't see why not. Let's get more information on it, okay guys?" they nodded and kept watching.

"This is a pokémon contest where coordinators from all over compete to win ribbons. They use their pokémon's abilities to soar through rounds and win. If you collect five ribbons you are eligible to enter the Grande Festival." The announcer said.

"Grande Festival? That sounds cool." I said.

"A coordinator huh? Hmm? What do you guys think? Should I be a coordinator?" they looked at each other then looked back at me.

"Yeah, yeah! You should be a coordinator!" they shouted.

"Then it's settled. We're going to enter a pokémon contest!" I shouted.

"Okay, it's bedtime. Goodnight you guys." I got under the covers and closed my eyes with a new thought on my mind.

**Kris: So May's gonna be a coordinator.**

**AJ: I don't feel so good…**

**Mikey: The pirate was from team aqua! GRRR!**

**Ash: Did we go out on a date?**

**Kris: No, of course not. (Yes)**

**Ash: I saw that! Are we together in this story?**

**Kris: No.**

**May: No?**

**QT: No.**

**May: Oh.**

**Kris: No.**

**May: I get it! Gosh!**

**Kris: Lol it's fun to get on her nerves, anyway I don't when I'll update next, just be looking out for it and I know you will be because you guys are awesome!**

**-barf-**

**Kris: Gross AJ! You didn't have to puke all over the floor like that! Totally gross dude!**

**AJ: Sorry. Uh oh.**

**May: Aim for the toilet sweetie!**

**Mikey: Bleh!**

**Ash: I don't even know what's going on anymore…**

**Kris: Neither do I. Huh, that's weird. Moving on! So…um…yeah…wait, what?**

**All:**

**Kris: Oh yeah! Bye!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**

Revision Date: 05.20.12


	13. Big News

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! I'm updating this story like I said I would so…yeah.**

**AJ: Whoo hoo!**

**Mikey: Alright!**

**Ash: They're great!**

**May: …I'm not even going to say anything.**

**Kris: Hehe…yeah So this is it!**

**AJ: Yep, oh yeah! You have summer chores huh?**

**Kris: Unfortunately…yes, yes I do!**

**Mikey: Aw man! That means we have to help you clean huh?**

**Kris: That would be nice.**

**Mikey: Too bad I'm not nice.**

**May: Oh stop it Mikey. Help Kris out.**

**Mikey: Fine but I shall not enjoy it!**

**AJ: Romeo! Romeo! Where for art thou Romeo!**

**Kris: Quit reading my books!**

**Disclaimer: KrystalClear101 is not the owner of Pokémon.**

**All: Gasp!**

Chapter 13

Big News

"May? May wake up. It's morning." I heard his slightly deep voice inside my dream. I stirred a bit before opening my eyes to catch sight of him staring at me with his warm chocolate eyes focused on my own. Hold on! Since when do I talk like that?

"Hmm…morning!" I yawned while sitting up in my bed and rubbing my eyes. Ash stepped back to his side of the room to finish packing up his belongings.

"Morning May!" that voice sounds familiar.

"Hey snory McSnorington!" I recognize that one.

"Good morning Torchic, morning Wurmple." I greeted my Pokémon as they sat in my lap.

"What are we gonna do today? Huh? Huh?" Wurmple jumped up and down excitedly. I sweat-dropped at his enthusiasm and sat him down nice and slow.

"Uh…we have a gym battle." I explained in an uneasy kind of way. In my mind I was still trying to figure out how I was going to break the news Ash. I got out of bed reached for my shower stuff. In a stressful sort of way, my back fell against the now closed door as I slid down and ran my right hand through my messy bed hair.

I guess I'm nervous about the gym battle or something, or maybe it's the fact that I've decided to compete in contests and that was classified as of eight hours ago. I should tell him, but what's he gonna say? I mean I've known him for what? A week? Eight days? I don't fully understand his methods yet and it kind of frightens me how he will react.

I sighed, getting off the ground and taking two steps toward the pearly white shower with the cerulean blue shower curtain and transparent shower liner. I dropped my things on the wooden shelf and turned the knob and sat down as the water reached the proper temperature. My mind was still focused on how to handle the situation or how he might handle it.

'What do you mean you changed your mind! You're battling the gym leader whether you want to or not!' I can see it now! He's gonna yell! He's gonna scream! He's gonna go completely ballistic! And I'm gonna cry! No, I have to be strong! I have to take it like a girl…but girls cry! Oh please let this go well for the sake of all that is good!

When I got out Ash was sitting on his own bed watching Pikachu, Torchic and Wurmple playing together.

I smiled at the sight as I began to pack up my things.

"Are you excited about your first gym battle May?" Ash asked me.

"About that," I started. Here goes.

"I'm not doing it." He looked at me in a confused way that made me want to strangle him.

"Why not? Do you think you're not ready because we can train some more…" he explained.

"No it's not that. I have a bit of a change of heart. I want to compete in Pokémon contests." I smiled proudly.

Again, he gave me that stupid look like I had egg all over myself. After a few seconds he broke into a smile and patted me on the shoulder.

"That's great May. You're creating your own goals and fulfilling your own destiny." He smiled at me and smiled back.

"Thanks. I'm glad you're backing me up on this Ash. Now, let's go!" I cheered.

"What about Wurmple and Torchic?" he asked him addressing the two Pokémon looking at me strangely.

"Oh yeah!" I laughed nervously.

"Return!" in a flash of red light my first two Pokémon vanished and Pikachu hopped on Ash's shoulder.

"So what made you change you mind May?" he asked me as he reached for the rusted gold door knob.

"Well, I was watching TV last night and they were showing a contest. It looked like so much fun and I guess I was just inspired by it." I finished while leaning against the wall.

"That's kind of like what happened to me. I always used to watch Pokémon battles on TV and I couldn't wait for that to be me one day." He explained.

"That's pretty cool. So, are you ready for your gym battle?" I asked him with a grin.

"Yeah I think I am. But it would really help if I knew what type of Pokémon the gym leader has." He shrugged and had a look of annoyance on his face.

"I'm sure you'll do fine Ash. I know it." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Thanks May. Let's get going okay? I'm starving." Tell me something I don't know. Phew! That worked out better than I thought it would. I guess I exaggerated a bit. Oh well! So here we are, walking side-by-side down the empty hallway toward the cafeteria with Pikachu still posted on Ash's left shoulder.

**Later on…**

"So it's a rock type gym. Hmm…with the attacks Pikachu can use, I'm no good. That means I need to train more with Treecko. Come on May." Apparently I wasn't paying attention because one minute I'm reading the sign in front of the gym and the next, I'm being dragged out of town.

"Huh? What's going on?" I don't usually go along with being pulled.

"I'm not ready for my gym battle so I'm going to train." he explained.

"Oh…" I hope he doesn't ask me to help. "What do you plan on doing?"

"What I usually do. You know, like when I helped you the first time. Sometimes we even go out in the field and battle some wild Pokémon. Whatever it takes to get stronger." I nodded as we both kept walking until we reached the bridge.

"Hey, you go on ahead and I'll catch up." He nodded and continued to cross the bridge. I watch him walk away until I can't see him anymore, then I sit down on the wooden bridge with my legs dangling off the edge, a few inches away from the calm water.

"Come out Torchic!" I released that chicken with an attitude. She comes out and shakes out her feathers before joining me on my lap. I smiled down on her before gently rubbing her head and looking out in the distance.

"What's up May?" she asked with a hint of concern hidden in her chirpy like voice. Truthfully, I was looking for a valid answer that I could give to my Pokémon, but nothing made sense to me. It was like I was lost inside own my head, a stranger in my body. I was trying to think but everything seemed so blocked. But, the only thing I could think of was disappointing my father.

I sighed. I never really knew for sure what my dad was like before my mom died, but he had to have been a whole lot better than he is now. He seems so hollow and empty. Am I a reminder of his late wife? Do I make him think of how his life used to be? Am I the one that shouldn't be here and…Caroline should? Everything seems so…unreal now.

"You know what, I don't know anymore Torchic. I just don't know…" she snuggled close to me with affection and I felt at peace. It's good for me to be out of the house and on the road. Away from my father.

"Oh…my…gosh…Is that a _real_ Torchic!" In my mind, I was processing something. Was someone talking to me? I looked up and I saw a little boy. He was kind of short with dark hair and thick glasses. He sported a green and white collared shirt with Bermuda shorts and green sneakers.

"Uh…yeah. Who are you?" I asked him. What kind of kid is this? You don't just walk up to random people asking about their Pokémon.

"Oh, I'm Max." He grinned sheepishly while scratching behind his head.

"Well my name's May. What are you doing out here?" for some reason, this kid confused me. He came out of nowhere.

"Max! Where the heck are you!" A kind of medium voice called. He jumped at the call and hid behind me.

"Please, please pretend to be my sister! That guy is from the orphanage and he thinks I don't have any family." he pleaded with me. I could see the desperation in his eyes, hidden behind the glassed. Reluctantly, and slowly, I agreed. He mouthed a thank you and he calmed down and sat beside me.

"There you are you little runt." Here comes the weirdest looking…I think it's a person? A guy? A girl? Or a Pokémon? Which is it? As I'm spending all of my time trying to figure out this…thing's species, he's intimidating poor little Max.

"What do you think you're doing? You're supposed to be back at the orphanage doing your sign in." it tried to pull Max away but I stopped it with my unbelievable acting skills.

"Hey! Where are you taking my little brother?" I stood up, pulling the shaking child behind me. This thing is tall!

"Little brother? He's your little brother? Why do I think you're lying?" Oh no, my my acting skills aren't that good. I could literally feel my heart beating out of my chest as he eyed me and the boy cautiously.

"He's not your brother, you're just covering for him because he begged you." it waved a finger at me. So it is a person. I stood my ground at this person and glared him/her straight in the eye.

"Look, I don't know who or what you are, but no one messes with my little brother. Got that!" I poked him/her hard in the chest with as much force as I could muster. In the end, I felt extreme pain in my index finger.

"Hmph!" surprisingly he/she stuck up his/her nose and switched off the bridge back into the city. I let out a well deserved breath and smiled down at Max, who was still clutching my leg.

"Thanks a lot May, I owe you one." he stepped out from behind me and bowed respectively. I had a new case on my hands. Who was this kid and why was that…thing after him.

"I think you have some explaining to do."

**Kris: Ha! Ha! Max is back baby!**

**Max: Oh Yeah!**

**May: Aw man!**

**Max: You know you love me!**

**May: Whatever...**

**AJ: Hi uncle Max!**

**Max: Hey AJ, where's Ash?**

**May: Probably somewhere having a battle...**

**All: Typical Ash...**

**Kris: Anyway, this just adds another twist that you weren't expecting huh? I'm just secretive like that.**

**AJ: The next chapter has even more surprises that you probably can't even imagine!**

**All: Review! 4 Sure!**

**R&R**


	14. All in the Family

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! This is just another chapter of this story.**

**May: There was something in the last chapter that really upset me. I wonder what it was?**

**Max: Hi everybody!**

**May: Now I remember…**

**Ash: Hey Max, longtime no see!**

**Max: Yeah, so…what goes on here?**

**Kris: Oh lots of things. The best part of all is the disclaimer! Yay! Here, you do it!**

**Max: Uh, okay? KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 14

All in the Family

Here I am, still stuck on this bridge with Max after we just fought off that person, thingy mabobber. I'm still trying to figure out his story and why he was being hunted down in the first place. I decided to hear his story and see what he had to say even though Ash is probably wondering where I am right now.

"So, talk to me Max. Why was that…guy or whatever after you?" I asked him as we resumed sitting on the bridge in this late morning. There a few clouds in the sky as he started his tale. Truthfully, I was interested in what he had to say and I'd be willing to help in any way I could. It just bugged me how some people thought they could pick on littler kids.

"You see a few days ago I found out that I was adopted and well, I didn't take the news all that well. I heard that my mom lived somewhere in Petalburg City so I was going to set off to find her after my foster parents let me go. Then that guy started to follow me around. And it got to the point where I'd have to hide from him so I wouldn't have to go to that orphanage." He paused before continuing on with his story.

"I don't want any trouble; I just want to find my real parents. That's all. It's hard out there for a kid." My heart went out to this boy as he concluded the story. It almost made my confession seem like child's play compared to his. I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and he did the surprising thing and hugged me. Of course this threw me off guard a bit, I mean I still hardly knew the kid but yet I felt like I had some strange connection to him. But connection or not I was in another one of those awkward situations that I hated.

"Uh…there…there…Max." I cautiously patted him on the back. He sat up straight and wiped his glasses off. On the inside I was relieved. I don't know what I would've done if he had of pulled out the water works. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Thanks again for covering for me." He smiled. I merely shook my head.

"No it's no problem. I was wondering do you have any idea of what your mom might look like?" I asked him. He nodded and began to dig in his pants pocket. He pulled out what looked like wallet sized photo that was ripped in half.

"There, there she is. Isn't she beautiful?" he beamed as he handed to the picture to me. I took it in my hands and looked it over. I nodded in agreement and proceeded to hand it back to him, but just then something clicked in my head and I just had to look at that picture again. No way! NO WAY! It can't be! It's not true! What the heck?

"That's my mom!" I screamed. He looked at me like I was completely nuts.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he took the picture and pocketed it while continuing to stare at me.

"I'm serious! Her name! It's Maria isn't it?" he shook his head, slowly catching on to what I was saying.

"Yeah, that's her name but if she's your mom, then that's means…"

"We're related." How many more secrets were going to unfold in my family? Here was my long lost brother sitting her talking on a bridge with me. I couldn't believe it. I always knew there was something wrong with Maria. She was always hiding something. I guess I know what it is now. My baby brother.

"Well, what do you want to do?" I asked the little boy who still looked at me surprised.

"I uh well…I don't know. I want to see my mom but I'm scared to go alone." He whimpered slightly. Oh no, I think I know what's coming next. "Would you come with me?" I knew it! Somehow I had figured he was going to ask me to come with him to the Petalburg City so he could meet Maria. I really can't blame him though. One day you wake up and find out that you're were adopted and the next you're being chased around town by some gender confused lunatic. He must be going through some stuff. Some life.

"Sure Max. What are big sisters for?" I smiled at him. We can either have Ash's gym battle today or wait until we come back but knowing him he's probably too excited to wait any longer. "But there are some circumstances…" I started as I began to pet my Torchic again. She chirped under my touch and jumped into my lap again.

"Huh? Like what?" he asked me.

"I'm not alone." His eyes widened as he looked at me in shock.

"You mean…" he started.

"…Yeah." I looked down at the orange pokémon who was about to sleep into dreamland.

"You have a boyfriend!" he shouted at me, nearly causing me to fall into the lake below us. At his sudden outburst, I felt my face getting warm. He thought that Ash was my boyfriend. But why is my face getting red? I could understand if you know he saw us together and made that totally wrong assumption but all I did was mention that I have…well a traveling partner.

"No I do not have a boyfriend! He's just a-" the little squirt interrupted me.

"He? Hmm…there's more to this situation then you're letting on." He glared at me slyly causing me to chuckle in a nervous way. We haven't known each other for over 30 minutes I get the urge to smack him in the head like an older sister would do.

"As I was saying, he's just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. That's the situation in a nutshell, now no more questions or…I'm telling mom!" I couldn't resist saying that and I couldn't resist his adorable smile either. This kid had a certain demeanor that probably, well attracted me to him somehow, call it fate if you want to.

"We'd better get going though, I told Ash I'd-" more interruptions?

"Ash? So that's his name huh? Weird name…anyway I'd like to meet this Ash before I…wait…Ash…Ash…" right then he stopped talking, I thought for a second that he had stopped breathing. His eyes got even wider than before and his hands began to tremble.

"Ash…K-Ketchum?" he stuttered slightly causing me to nodded slowly making sure I watched this kid carefully in case well…you know.

"No way!" He shouted again and this time I did fall into the lake and that lucky chicken managed to hop out of my lap during my decent. With a splash my body made contact with the shining water. I wanted to scream. Any other time I would've beaten the living daylights out of this kid but I held my temper.

"Look what you did?" if you call that holding your temper. I swam up to the edge of the bridge and pulled myself out of the water, soaking wet and a bit irritated.

"It was an accident! Sorry May…" his hands were clasped behind his back as he began playing with the boards of wood on the bridge. My anger softened as I looked in his eyes…brown like Ash's. I couldn't stay made at him for long. I looked at the boy and smiled.

"It's okay I was feeling kind of warm anyway." I sighed as I took off my bandana and began to ring it out. The water dropped into the lake creating several ripples that echoed throughout the water. Not knowing what to do with it, I stuffed it in my wet fanny pack. I addressed the boy as he still held an apologetic smile on his face.

"Sorry." He sheepishly scratched behind his head. I shook my head and gestured for him to follow me to the other side of the lake. After a few steps I was expecting to feel Torchic's tiny talons on my shoulder. When I didn't, I turned around to see it hanging out with Max. I smiled at the sight and continued walking with my clothes sticking very close to me. And again, I had to ask myself. How do I get into these types of situations?

(Told in Ash's Point of View)

I don't want to go too far into the forest knowing how May and I spent hour upon hour in there because well…we got lost and when Brendan got us out of there I somehow managed to get us lost again. I could tell she was mad at me but she held her temper. I don't know why because she could've killed me right on the spot. Oh well, all's well that ends well I suppose. Enough of the past, it's time I focused on that gym battle I have today. I don't want to go in there inexperienced so now's my time to train my but off so I can win this match.

"I wonder where May is, she said she would catch up but…there's no ketchup! Ha that was funny right buddy?" I turned to my shoulder to give Pikachu a high-five but he was gone. I saw him on the ground digging what looked like a hole and then sticking his head inside and reburying it. I grunted softly and picked him.

"You overreacted a bit don't you think?" I glared him straight in the eye to which he looked at me crossly.

"I overreacted Ash? You're the one telling stupid ketchup jokes about May." At that I twitched slightly and held him an arm's length away from me_._ Well, in some instances he was right. Now that I think about it, it was kind of stupid even for me. May would've done the same thing so I don't blame him. But that still doesn't explain where May is and what's taking her so long. The last time she took so long to meet back up with me she had been attacked by some Poochyena.

"Do you think we should go look for her?" he shrugged and hopped out of my arms and on my shoulder. For some reason I couldn't get her off my mind. What was wrong with me? I never felt this way before. It's a mixture of care and worry. I guess I'm worried that she'll get herself into another bad situation like on previous occasions. I've got to remind myself not to leave her alone ever again. This girl scares me. She's like a magnet for trouble but you can't help but love her. I mean like! Like her! Not love! Never love, just like!

"What's wrong with me?" he scratched my head in a confused way.

"I could name a couple of things…" Pikachu muttered under his breath. I glared at him and chuckled sarcastically.

"Well it's still pretty early so I'll still have time to train after I find her." I couldn't believe myself. I was giving up training time for a…a girl? Those creatures who used to scare the wits out of me when I was a kid, like Abigail who slipped a Caterpie down my shirt that one time. The Ash Ketchum before Hoenn was no longer here. This is the Hoenn version of me who's constantly looking after this crazy girl who I can't help but _like_. Ha! I got it right this time. But pushing that all aside I find myself wanting to find her, just for the reassurance that you know she's okay and that I'm keeping the promise I made to her mom.

As I inch closer to the bridge I see two people walking across it over to the other side of the lake. One of them is evidently taller than the other by a lot. My pace slowed down as I identified the two. One of them, obviously a girl, had her hair down with a red t-shirt…white skirt…blue shorts…that's May!

"Hey May!" there I go again, rhyming words with her name. I'll admit I liked doing it and seeing the smile on her face as she shook her head at me. She turned to face me as did the little boy that was following her. As she got closer, I noticed something was different about her. Something was missing but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Oh well, it'll come to me sooner or later.

"Hey Ash, I thought you were out training." She spoke to me as she began to eye the boy beside her. Then I noticed one thing. She was all wet from head to toe. Her brown clung tightly to her face as did her clothes. All in all she looked kind of…well, I don't know. Weird?

"I was but…why are you all wet?" I pointed to her as the kid kept looking at me strangely making me feeling like a caveman on display in a museum or something.

"It's a long story. But to make it shorter-"

"You're Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! I know all about you! All your big battles and Tournaments. You even beat Drake, the leader of the Orange Crew! You're my hero!" all of the sudden he started naming off all of my accomplishments like the alphabet or something. Sure it was nice to have a fan but he knows a bit too much.

"-And you traveled with Brock and Misty and for a second everyone thought that you two were dating." At that comment I could feel a knot in my stomach arise. May looked at me strangely for a moment before she walked up to me.

"You okay? Your face all of the sudden turn green." She placed her wet hands on my cheeks and looked into my eyes. I could see worry in her blue orbs as they searched through my own brown ones. At that I felt my face changing colors. From green to red almost instantly.

"I-I'm fine May." Why was I stuttering?

"Oh, if you say so…as I was saying before _you_ interrupted again…" she glared at the younger boy who smiled sheepishly. "Ash, this is my brother, Max." she placed her hands on his head as he stood before me.

"What? I thought you said you were an only child?" I shouted loudly.

"I thought I was too. But apparently…this is a really long story. Why don't we go back to the pokémon center and talk about this. That way I can get out of these wet clothes." She began to pick at her shirt like she was annoyed.

"That's fine. Let's go." I'm so easy going around her.

"So Ash, like I said before, I thought you were out training. What happened?" she asked me in a curious way.

"Well, I was about to start but then I decided to wait for you. When you didn't show I guess I got a bit worried." I scratched my head nervously as I felt that warm feeling rise up in my cheeks again.

"So you came looking for me? Aw, well that was nice." She laughed softly and smiled.

"And you said he wasn't your boyfriend…" Max snickered as he took the lead and began walking ahead of us. We both stopped in our tracks and looked at each other. I felt my face heat up even more as her cheeks turned a bit red. I quickly turned away from her and tried to hide my emotions from underneath my hat.

"Max! I'm going to get you for that!" I heard her yell as she chased after the boy who by now was across to the other side. I felt sorry for him because he just didn't know about the type of pain he was in for.

**Kris: Yet another twist in this story.**

**Max: I don't really admire Ash **_**that**_** much…do I?**

**Ash: You sure do. I'm your idol.**

**May: I thought it was hero.**

**Ash: No May, I'm his idol and your hero.**

**May: Aw, really? That's so sweet!**

**-hugs-**

**Kris: Somebody get me a barf bag I'm about to puke.**

**Max: Same here.**

**May: Grow up you two.**

**Ash: Yeah Kris you know you'd be acting the same way with Mikey.**

**-not Mikey that's usually here-**

**Kris: …**

**May: Ha!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	15. Back Tracking

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! I'm still not talking to you Ash.**

**Ash: What? Because I stated the obvious?**

**Kris: No because you made such a horrible accusation that both Mikey and I would disapprove of a million times over!**

**May: Wow.**

**Max: Yeah, wow.**

**Real Mikey: Wow, what'd he say?**

**Kris: That you and I act that him and May.**

**Real Mikey: Hold on! We don't act stupid.**

**Ash: May and I aren't stupid.**

**May: I'm not, but Ash is.**

**Ash: What?**

**Kris: Anywho, this is chapter 15 so get ready.**

**Ash: KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon but she does have a HUGE crush on-**

**Kris: Just start the party already!**

Chapter 15

Back Tracking

(Told in May's POV)

I still couldn't believe Max said that about Ash and I. I mean it was enough for him to assume that we were dating but to actually point out an actual couple moment. Personally I thought it was a _friendly_ gesture and nothing more, but the mind of a little boy probably thinks more about these things than I do. But what confuses me more was the look on Ash's face.

First he turned green when Max mentioned him and some girl named Misty dating, but then he turned red almost immediately when I asked him if he was okay. I'll admit that I shouldn't have touched him like that, but I was concerned, people just don't turn from green to red like that. And then he turned even redder again when Max made that stupid comment which he's paying for right now.

"You are so lucky that I just found out I'm related to you." I had the boy in the head lock as he struggled to break free. By this time Ash had caught up with us and was trying to make sense of this situation.

"Hello? Aren't you going to help me…at all?" Max spoke to Ash who was just staring at us stupidly. I bet in his mind he was debating on whether to turn around and walk away like he didn't know us. Good thing he didn't. He laughed softly and pulled my arms off of Max's head as he ran a few feet away.

I stuck my tongue out at the boy as he laughed at me. I was going to chase after him again but something impeded me. It was Ash. He was still holding onto my arms while looking down on me strangely. It was at that moment that I noticed how much taller he was than me. It was only a few inches but it was clearly evident at the time.

Then I started noticing his facial features like the marks under his eyes that resembled lightning bolts. Were those birthmarks? They looked interesting to me. But as seconds passed I felt myself getting very uncomfortable in his hands. They held a strong grip on me but yet I wasn't hurt, just a bit confused. By now he should've let go, but it was like he was in a trance or something. He kept staring at my cheeks like I hand egg on my face or something like that.

"Uh, Ash? Could I have my arms back now?" I asked him strangely. Ever since we had reunited at the bridge, he had been acting really strange.

"Huh? Oh, hehe sorry about that." He released me and began to chuckle nervously.

"I think we better head inside now. You two are starting to creep me out." Max commented with an almost disgusted look on his face, making me want to pounce on him again.

"Haven't you said enough? Hmm?" I approached him with my hands on my hips and a glare painted on my face. Max merely shrugged and entered the pokémon center leaving Ash and I behind.

"May, I think we need to talk about some things." I felt his hand on my shoulder as his words went into my ears. A weird feeling flashed over me as did a wave of heat and it made me feel really uncomfortable. But my discomfort soon subsided when I saw his smile. There was just something about the way his lips curved that made me feel at ease.

"Yeah, you're right." I nodded slightly as he released my shoulder and walked on ahead of me. I stood there alone in front of this Pokémon Center as it was still pretty early in the morning. I sighed. A lot of things had happened today and I wasn't sure how I was going to held it, let alone how Ash and everyone else Petalburg would as well. I was really nervous.

So far my life had been pretty simple except for all those little details that everyone has to deal with every now and again. But now I was faced with something entirely different. It felt like the weight of the world had been placed on my shoulders. I'm only ten, I can take only so much responsibility.

I let out a slow breath as I took one more step into the lobby of the Rustboro City Pokémon Center. As I continued walking, I heard squishing noises and I was reminded that the little genius who shall remain nameless scared me enough that I slipped into the lake. I never liked being wet unless I wanted to but this time it was just an accident so I guess I'll brush it off, seeing this is the our first day of being together.

As I inched closer to the room Ash and I had reserved I could hear muffled taking. I slipped my key into the slot and turned the knob. When I walked in I spotted the two boys engrossed in a conversation. I gave a small wave, trying not to interrupt their time of talking so I tip toed over to the dresser and pulled out the only clothes I had that weren't soaking wet. I then made my way over to the restroom where I planned to change out of my wet attire and into something nice and dry.

(Told in Ash's POV)

I was talking to Max when May finally came into the room. She smiled a bit before walking to the dresser and taking out a few things and then retreating into the bathroom. I've yet to find out why she was drenched in the first place and how Max suddenly became her little brother after I was away from her for about 15 or 20 minutes.

I told you she was a magnet for trouble. Well I wouldn't technically call it trouble but it is well…rather different. But all in all Max is a pretty cool kid and he seems to admire me a lot but he won't stop mentioning how I lost in the semi-finals of the Silver Conference and it's getting really annoying.

"I did good in the championship!" I grunted at the boy but he merely tipped his glasses at me and smirked.

"Yeah…but you still lost." I growled angrily, giving up on trying to convince him that placing Top 4 is really good for my second league.

"Whatever…" I looked at the bathroom anticipating May's return so she could explain to me what happened. Max is starting to annoy me in a little brother kind of way and I'm tempted to put him in a head lock of my own. Not to mention the embarrassing comment he made about Misty and I being a couple and then May too! What kind of guy does he think I am?

One Misty is just a good friend; never datable, at least to me. She scares me way too much. Two, I just met May and she's a friend too. Besides what would we have in common? She's obviously interested in contests and showing off her pokémon. No similarities whatsoever.

"Can I see the rest of your pokémon?" he asked me excitedly. I wasn't used to this kind of attention, but now that it was being dealt to me I welcomed it with open arms.

"Sure. Come out you guys." I tossed two regular pokéballs in the air as the bright light materialized into a green gecko named Treecko and a blue and red bird referred to as Taillow.

"Wow! A Treecko? How cool! Personally I like Treecko better than all the Hoenn starters." He commented, bending down eye level to the cool like gecko. I guess Max forgot that May's Torchic was still out of its pokéball. I looked at the chick and she seemed pretty peeved.

"Torchic tor!" she chirped angrily and began to peck Max repeatedly on the head. He definitely deserved that after ranting on me about losing in the semi-finals. I stared down on the boy as he continued to get tortured by the small chicken. I heard the door knob to the bathroom open as May stepped out finally.

She was wearing and blue tank top, dark training shorts and red and yellow trainers. She carried her original outfit in her hands and walked over to the dirty hamper and dropped her clothes inside. In the next few moments she noticed the attacked and the attacker still in pursuit.

"Now, now Torchic, I'm sure whatever Max said or did he's sorry. Right?" she looked at her brother expectantly as she carried the steamed pokémon in her arms.

"Sorry Torchic." He grinned sheepishly and Torchic turned away from him in anger. May laughed as she took a seat on her bed and reached for Torchic's pokéball. In a matter of seconds the fire type had disappeared into the red and white sphere.

"So…anyone mind explaining a few things to me?" I piped up because, well I felt like I was in the dark in a lot of areas and let's just say I wanted some clarification.

"I will. And you better not interrupt me Max." she winked at him and he grunted angrily. I laughed well…because I thought it was funny. Anyway.

"You see Max was adopted and he just recently found that out. So his foster parents let him go so he could find his really parents, but some…creature was chasing him around the city so Max came up to me and asked if I would be his pretend sister long enough for the being to leave him alone. So I did it. Then I found out that his real mother lived in Petalburg City. That's when he showed me a picture of her and I found out that his birth mother was actually Maria." She explained.

"No way? Really?" I was a bit shocked by what she said. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind at all about Max being related to May in that way. "But that doesn't explain how you got wet." I said again.

"There _you_ go interrupting. As I was saying. Max and I started talking and that's when he asked if I would go with him so he could meet Maria. I said that…we would…but I mentioned that you and I were traveling together. When I said you're name, he got a bit over-excited and scared me to the point where I slipped off the edge of the bridge thus causing me to have to change my clothes." She finished.

"Oh, that explains a lot- wait, so we're going back to Petalburg?" I asked, I just wanted to make sure that I heard right. I saw her mood change as faint color of red was evident on her cheeks.

"Yeah, I agreed to go with Max because he was too scared to go alone. I hope you're not mad Ash." she looked down in her lap like she was ashamed or something.

"No, it's alright. After my gym battle we'll be heading back in that direction anyway, so it's no big deal." I smiled at her causing her to grin back as well as Max.

"This is going to be so cool!" Max shouted happily.

"Well, I've got to go train for that gym battle today so I'll catch you guys later." With that I returned my two pokémon and gestured for Pikachu and join me on my shoulder. As I reached for the knob and turned back to May and gave her one quick smile and walked out the door. Something in my mind told me to do that for some reason. I felt that she needed some reassurance for the whole situation so I gave her the satisfaction. But for some reason, my eyes drifted back to her cheeks, they still looked a bit red.

(Told in May's POV)

After Ash got back from training we had lunch at the pokémon center and prepared to go to the gym where he could have his battle. It was kinda funny to see him so psyched. I had never seen anyone so excited to have a battle ever. He was jumping up and down and shouting loudly. I found myself cringing and clutching my head every time he did though.

For some reason my head hurt a little, but I brushed it off as having too many things running through my mind. I'll admit that even I was a little excited about this battle too. It was guaranteed to be a good one even after Max and I walked in at the end of his training session. Just enough time to see Ash in mid-action.

He showed us this new attack that Pikachu had learned from a random guy who just so happened to see them training. It's a move where Pikachu's tail glows brightly and gains power as he slams it into something. I think he called it Iron Tail or something like that.

Anyway it'll probably be the only attack the yellow guy can use though. I remember Ash saying that electric type moves don't effect rock types so he got lucky with that. He also said that grass types like his Treecko have advantages too. Treecko did manage to learn Bullet said and his speed is amazing so that should be a good asset as well.

"Here we are. Rustboro gym and my very first gym battle in the Hoenn region. Are you ready Pikachu?" he motioned towards the electric type who wore the same expression of determination.

"Pika pika!" it exclaimed loudly.

"Then let's go." He pushed open the glass doors and walked in with Max and I close behind him. I guess you could say that I was a bit excited for him but not at all for the gym battle itself. I've seen hundreds of gyms battles ever since Dad became a gym leader. I've see hundreds of kids lose and some win so this was nothing new to me.

"Welcome to the Rustboro Gym. I'm Roxanne, the gym leader." A girl about my height with brown hair, a blue dress, pink stockings and blue shoes came into the room and addressed Ash.

"I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town and I'm here to challenge you to a gym battle!" he shouted loudly.

"Just as I suspected. Let's begin then." She nodded toward a guy on the sidelines who was holding a red flag pointing in her direction and a green one in Ash's.

"We'll sit on the sidelines over here, okay Ash?" I pointed to a long bench on the side of the rocky battle field.

"Okay May and Max, I'm counting on you guys to cheer me on!" he gave us a thumbs up, to which I smiled and Max returned the favor with a similar gesture.

"This will be a two-on-two match between the Rustboro City Gym Leader, Roxanne and Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town. Only the challenger can make substitutions. The match will end when both two of the trainer's pokémon are unable to battle. Begin!" he raised his flags in the air.

"Geodude, come on out!" she tossed the pokéball and released this rock looking pokémon.

"Geodude!" it cried.

"Okay Pikachu let's go." Pikachu nodded and hopped off of Ash's shoulders and onto the battle field along with Pikachu.

"Pikachu? What's he thinking? Doesn't he know that electric type attacks have now effect on rock types like Geodude!" Max freaked out.

"I'm pretty sure Ash knows what he's doing Max." for some reason I had a lot of confidence in his abilities, but Max seemed a bit reluctant about trusting in his skills. He'll come around…eventually.

"I'll start this match off then. Geodude use rollout attack." Roxanne called out a command and the rock pokémon acted upon it by forming itself into a ball and hurdling towards Pikachu.

"Dodge it with quick attack!" Ash responded. Just as Geodude's move was about to make contact, Pikachu dashed out of the way with blinding speed.

"Whoa! Did you see how fast Pikachu went May?" Max tugged on my arm and continued watching the battle.

"I told you he knew what he was doing." He let go of my arm and I see him getting as pumped for the battle as Ash was and he was just on the sidelines. I was waiting and watching for anything that would stand out in this battle but so far all I noticed was Pikachu's speed.

"Alright Geodude, Rock throw!" Geodude stopped its rolling and tossed fairly sized rocks in Pikachu's direction.

"Pikachu bounce off those rocks and power up your iron tail!" he commanded.

"Pika! Pi…ka…chu! Chu…Pika!" after evading that last attack, Pikachu slammed its glowing tail right into Geodude and I heard a large crack. Of course the attack caused dust from the gym to form. Once it clear I could hear the referee on his little stand.

"Geodude is unable to battle. Pikachu is the winner!" an even larger smile formed on my face as he jumped up in excitement.

"Way to go Ash!" I cheered for him. He turned to me and flashed that smile of his that made my mouth go dry every time.

"Oh, but it's not over yet." Roxanne retaliated while recalling Geodude back into its ball.

"Far from it." He smirked.

"Okay, Nosepass let's go!" with a flick of the wrist and a flash of light a large rock pokémon appeared with a large red nose in the center of its face.

"Whoa, check out that Nosepass!" Max gaped in astonishment at the pokémon where as I had my mind on what Ash was planning to do. As far as attacks go, he was limited to one that would some effective damage and this Nosepass looked very defensive.

"I'll start, Pikachu use quick attack!" Ash shouted across the field. Pikachu sprinted quickly over the Nosepass while it just stood there.

"Rock Tomb." Roxanne said. In an instant, several rocks formed over Pikachu's head and just dropped right on top of him.

"Pikachu! Move out of the way!" Ash yelled in a haste as the yellow guy crushed by the rocks. After a few seconds, it dug itself out and collapsed on the ground.

"Pikachu is unable to battle! Nosepass is the winner!" Ash ran to the field and picked up Pikachu in his arms. He looked worried but he maintained his smile.

"You did a great job Pikachu. You deserve a nice rest." Suddenly I saw him walking over to me with the wounded pokémon in his arms. Why is he coming over here? Doesn't he have a match to finish?

"May could you look after Pikachu while I finish the battle?" he actually asked me to look after his pokémon. I couldn't believe it but it was true.

"Sure." I smiled as he laid the pokémon in my arms and it smiled up at me. I held it tightly but not too tightly. After a while my mind drifted whereas and I was no longer focused on the battle. I was confused but yet somewhat honored. He trusted me to take care of his very first pokémon and his best friend. It made me feel good that he chose me instead of just letting Pikachu sit on the bench. He made it a point to hand Pikachu to me in person instead of telling it to go sit down _next_ to May. Of course it might've been because Pikachu is immobile at the moment but since when did I become a pessimist?

"Nosepass is unable to battle! Treecko is the winner! The victor of this match is Ash Ketchum up Pallet!" I snapped out of my daydream only to realize that I had missed the last part of the battle. I looked on the field and saw Ash's Treecko standing up straight with a few bruises on its body and a twig sticking out of its mouth.

"Alright, we did it Treecko! I'm really proud of you, take a good rest." Ash returned Treecko as Roxanne walked over to him.

"That was a great battle Ash, I award you with the official Rustboro City Gym badge. Congratulations!" she handed him a golden colored badge and he did the weirdest thing.

"Yeah, I got my first gym badge!" and then he did a weird pose in front of us. I sweat-dropped at how…weird he looked but it still made me laugh. Max and I got up to congratulate him on his victory while I still had his partner snoozing happily in my arms.

"What an awesome battle Ash! You're much better in person." Max complimented him.

"Thanks Max. What'd you think May?" he asked for my opinion, much to my surprise.

"I thought it was a great battle. Too bad about Pikachu though, he is doing better." I said with a smile. He nodded and gently rubbed between its ears.

"He looks comfortable, why don't you hang on to him for awhile, okay?" this surprised me even more. Not only did he put Pikachu in my care when he couldn't take care of him but now he has the chance to take him back and he doesn't? Wow, Ash must really _really_ trust me. I'm glad though, because I trust him.

**Kris: Wow, what a long chapter!**

**AJ: How many words is that?**

**Mikey: Looks over…3,000!**

**May: Mondo cool!**

**Ash: Yeah!**

**Kris: …**

**Real Mikey: …**

**Mikey: Oh! The cool shoulder!**

**AJ: Yeah it's…cold?**

**Max: When will you ever use your brain Ash? She can easily write/type you out of the story.**

**Ash: She can't, I'm a main character.**

**May: Yeah but I'm the main character x's 2.**

**Kris: I hope you enjoyed this chapter I'll see you…whenever.**

**All: Thanks for reading!**


	16. Unexpected, Unplanned, Unwanted

**Kris: Hi! HI! Everyone! How's your week been doing?**

**May: That's a very considerate thing to ask Kris.**

**Ash: Yeah, you're a great author.**

**Kris: Quit kissing up you two, I'm still writing Ash out of the story.**

**Ash: I know! We should settle this over a battle.**

**Max: Hey! That's the best idea you've had all story.**

**May: That's true.**

**Kris: Okay, next time we'll have a battle. I'll be using my Typhlosion. What about you?**

**Max: Maybe this wasn't such a great idea…**

**May: That's true too…**

**Ash: Some faith you guys have in me. I'll use my Charizard.**

**Kris: Cool. I'm not the owner of pokémon.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 16

Unexpected, Unplanned, Unwanted

(Told in Ash POV)

Man, I feel great! That battle was really what I needed to get into the spirit of things again. I feel so pumped. And from the looks of it, I'm not the only one. Max seems really excited too and less annoying. I've come to like this little kid even after knowing him for at most an hour and a half.

"Wow! That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I want to see all your battles in person Ash, you were great." He congratulated for the third time. I merely scratched my head as he continued to admire the badge I won.

"Heh, thanks…again Max." I slightly blushed out of embarrassment. I looked over at May to notice she was acting very quiet like she had something on her mind. "May?" I called her name but she continued to stare out into space. "Hello? Earth to May?" I waved a hand in her face to snap her out of her daze.

"Huh what? Oh…what is it Ash?" she finally answered me back.

"Are you okay? You haven't said a word since we left the gym." I approached her slightly. Her eyes looked sort of droopy and I could still see the red on her cheeks.

"I'm ok-a-a-a-achoo!" she sneezed right in my face and sniffled slightly. "On no! I can't be sick, I just can't!" she freaked out a bit. I frantically wiped myself from her spit and nose crap. Man that was gross. "You…" she growled at Max. "This is all your fault!" Max whimpered slightly.

"I said I was sorry. It was an accident!" he pleaded his case the best he could.

"Now I'm probably sick all because of you!" she touched her face with her hand and continued to hold the sleeping Pikachu in the other. "This is was unexpected…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I mean it does suck that you're sick and everything, but it's nothing that a little medicine won't fix." I placed my hand in her shoulder but this time I made sure I kept my distance just incase she sneezed again. Today I found myself holding onto her shoulder a lot. I wonder why I keep doing that?

"I guess you're right." She sighed and looked down at the ground with a long face.

"Pfft and you guys said you didn't like each other…" Max scoffed as he walked passed us with a smirk evident on his face.

"Shut up Max!" We surprisingly yelled at him at the same time. I couldn't help but smile because it was a funny situation.

"We should probably head back to the pokémon center." I suggested. "Pikachu needs a good rest." I looked over at May who seemed content with holding him and he seemed content with being held by her.

"He's been doing fine since the battle." She smiled down on him. In my head I was processing something to say to her about the whole situation that happened in the gym.

"Hey May? I want to thank you for taking care of Pikachu again. I know it was…a bit unplanned but since Pikachu hates his pokéball and he was too tired to perch himself on my shoulder. You were my only option and-" she held up her finger and had a smirk on her face.

"Don't even think about it. It was my pleasure, besides, I like Pikachu." She smiled at the yellow guy, then looked back up at me.

"Great, I'm glad we have an understanding. Do you mind uh…doing this for every battle?" I asked her cautiously. Sometimes May can scare you with her stares and reactions.

"Sure!" she smiled at me happily. Phew! Glad that's over.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast with the exception of Max's ranting about how much he wanted to be a trainer. He's a pretty funny kid though. May and him fight like they've known each other their whole lives.

"Max there's something else I should mention before we get back to Petalburg. I have a dad." May started with an uneasy look on her face.

"You do? Well…what's he like?" Max asked with the same cautiously.

"He's a gym leader." May said.

"No way!" Max yelled.

"Why do you always do that?" May yelled back.

"You mean to tell me that your dad is the Petalburg Gym leader!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah he is…the block head himself…" May muttered under her breath.

"He is my idol…next to you Ash." He grinned at me and I couldn't help but laugh. May seemed a bit reluctant to talk about her dad. It seems that we all have problems with our parents.

"Is anyone else besides me just a bit hungry?" May admitted as she grinned sheepishly.

"I agree with you, I'm starving." Max clutched his stomach tightly and they both looked at me.

"…What?" I asked feeling a bit uncomfortable under their stares.

"You're the one with the money badge boy." May looked at me with a smile. I laughed at her response as we headed to the pokémon center.

"We can just eat at the pokémon center, can't we?" I scratched my head slightly confused as to why they needed the money I just got, I mean it wasn't much but it was still mine. They both nodded as we entered the center. Just then, an idea popped into my head. There's not always gonna be a pokémon center or a restaurant around while we're traveling, so what are we going to do for food?

"May, can you get Pikachu and Treecko checked out while I make a phone call?" I asked her as I gave her Treecko's pokéball.

"I uh sure." She looked at me with a confused stare as I ran off towards the phones.

(May's POV)

That was weird. He just gave me a pokéball and ran off somewhere. Guys. Can't live with them, wish we could find a way to live without them. Oh well, I can feel myself drifting into illness as the day presses on and me wearing a tank top in an air conditioned building in late spring isn't really helping the situation either.

"Hey Nurse Joy, could you heal these two pokémon please." I gently laid Pikachu on the counter as set the pokéball next to him.

"It would be my pleasure. If you come back in about 15 minutes, your pokémon with be as good as new." She gave a nurse like smile and retreated to the back room. During that time I gestured for Max to follow me as we began our walk down to the cafeteria. I couldn't help but wonder who Ash could be calling. Possibly his mom. That would be kind of funny. Maybe that's why he did it in secrecy…hmm…

"Would you hurry up and grab a tray already?" I heard that annoying voice snap at me. I looked down and saw Max with an agitated scowl on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him and followed his advice by grabbing a tray. Once we grabbed our food, the only thing left to do was eat and wait for Ash.

But some reason, I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was. Okay, so I was hungry but I didn't eat like a normally would've. Mainly because I was racking my brain trying to figure out who he could be calling and why he kept it from Max and I. Maybe he's a part of some secret organization planning to take over the world? Nah…maybe he's secretly dating that Foggy girl…or was it Misty? Who cares? Just who is that boy calling? Why am I being so nosy? What's wrong with me?

"You are so weird." I heard from the other side of the table as Max just stared at me like the idiot I was. I rolled my eyes at him and continued to eat whatever was left on my plate. As I ate on, I felt ashamed of myself for being so nosy about Ash and his private life. I'm just a girl he met about a month ago. Why should I be in his business like an annoying chick with no life? I sighed and push my clean plate aside and waited for Max to get done.

"Stop thinking about it. It's probably nothing." He said to me as he stuffed some food in his mouth. I looked at him with a questionable glare in my eye.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. He gave that 'duh' look as he put his fork down.

"Don't play dumb. You're thinking about who he could be calling. No offense…sis…but it's really none of your business. It's not mine for that matter either. Besides, he seems like a reliable person. When he comes back he'll explain everything to us." Geez, this kid is smart. I smiled at him in disbelief as he gave me a slight smirk.

"You're right." I gave a laugh as a sheepishly blush spread across my cheeks.

"Yeah, I don't want you to hurt yourself by thinking too much." I began to glare at his smart remark as he gave a small laugh and continued to eat.

I shook my head at him and turned my attention to the other trainers in the cafeteria. Then I noticed that guy we saw in the forest a couple days ago. What was his name? Bryan, Bret, Brandon? Darn! I can't remember! There I was again, thinking too hard and receiving those annoying stares from Max.

"You have some serious problems you know that?" I gave him a death stare as he shook his head. What was his name? That white hair…that's it! Brendan! Ha! I knew I'd get it! The little May inside me did a little victory dance while I maintained my composure to avoid being called an idiot by my kid brother. Before I knew it, he came strolling over to our table with a wide grin on his face.

"Hi May!" He greeted me. I looked up at him, as did Max.

"Hey Brendan, imagine seeing you here!" I said with a fake grin. For some reason he made me extremely uncomfortable at the moment.

"I just thought I'd stop to get something to eat before I head out. Hey, where's Ash?" He asked looking for the other trainer.

"He had to make a phone call. He's coming back." I said. Wow, did I ever sound like a secretary. Max continued to chew his food while staring at Brendan's hair follicles with that look of 'Is that his _real_ hair?' I laughed at his expression.

"Why are you wearing that weird cap on your head?" Max piped up. I was confused as to what he was talking about.

"I was wondering when someone was going to notice." Brendan sighed and took a seat next to the boy.

"What are you talking about?" What cap? All I saw was a red and black headband and white hair. Of course I wondering how he managed to have even spikes and no hairs sticking up while I can't even brush my hair without something getting stuck.

Then he did the weirdest thing I had ever seen. He…took…off…his hair! Well just the cap that I thought was his hair. Underneath it all, he had pure black hair that was about 2 to 3 inches long. He looked more mysterious and dark with the cap off. He gave me a slight smirk as he looked at my expression.

"Hard to believe huh? I wear the cap because I hate my black hair." He said and he placed it back on. Amazing…what a…strange boy. I shook my head as someone sat down next to me.

"It's about time you got down here. Too many weird things have been going on." Max said as Ash made himself comfortable.

"Sorry, I didn't think I'd be on the phone that long. Oh! Hey Brendan, didn't see you there for a minute." Ash gave a quick smile before devouring his food. Finally I could find out what that phone call was all about.

"So Ash-" I was interrupted.

"I have some news. There's going to be a new addition to our team." He said with a smile that scared me more that excited me. Oh no. What did he do?

**Kris: Sorry I left you with a cliffhanger there.**

**AJ: Wow, you're using your real name!**

**Kris: Yeah! You're using yours too!**

**Mikey: Hey! Sarcasm hurts!**

**May: Sticks and stones!**

**Brendan: I'm back!**

**Kris: Moving on…who did Ash ask to be apart of the group? Was that even apart of the phone call? And where did Brendan come from?**

**Ash: And why did he take his head off?**

**Brendan: It's a cap!**

**All: Brenda wears a wig!**

**Brenda**_**n**_**: I do not! And my name's not Brenda!**

**Kris: Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. As you all know, school has started back up and going to an academy where you get homework in P.E. doesn't really help with updates. Chapter 8 of PA2G is pending. I have started it and I'm about half way done so no worries there. Now the next chapter of Chat Room is already done I just have to submit it and everything.**

**AJ: Stop talking!**

**Kris: Neva! P.S. -****Who else did a victory dance when May appeared on Battle Dimension? I woke up my parents screaming! Omg! Ahem. Back to other matters…**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	17. End of A Long Day

Kris: Hi

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Chapter 17!**

**All: Party!**

**Some: Par-tay!**

**Losers: Poop!**

**Mikey: People order our patties!**

**AJ: Get a life Mikey!  
**

**Mikey: Get a face!**

**All: Burn!**

**AJ: Shut up!**

**Max: Aren't we supposed to be having a battle?**

**Kris: Your loser of a brother-in-law isn't here yet.**

**May: In the meantime, KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon.**

**All: Start the-**

**Ash: I'm here!**

**All: Party?**

Chapter 17

End of a Long Day

(Told in May's POV)

I couldn't believe my ears. Did he say what I think he just said? Someone else is going to be joining our group? As if there weren't enough problems why not add another human being to the equation. Oh geez Ash you could've consulted me about this first! What a total loser! Grr! I could just strangle him right now! This could be a potential mistake that could ruin this journey.

"What?" Max beat me to it. I stayed silent waiting for an explanation that I felt like I deserved, I mean didn't this already happen today with Max? He could've waited like 24 hours before dropping this kinda of news on us. How dense can you be?

"I called up one of my old traveling buddies and asked him to join up with us." He explained. I looked at him in disgust. You loser! Grr! I felt like a parent who just found out their child had invited kids over to the house without asking first. Okay, I know I'm being a bit of a hypocrite here since I gave him _almost_ the same news just hours before, but it's not confirmed if Max is a permanent member of the group yet.

"It's a he?" I asked. Yet another annoying part of the deal. Three boys and a girl? Ugh!

"Yeah, his name is Brock, he used to be the Pewter City Gym Leader. After I battled him for my badge he joined up with me and Misty and we've been friends eve since. Of course he's a lot older than us, not to mention the fact that he's an awesome cook. That's one of the reasons why I asked him and join up with us. I hope this isn't too much of a shocker for you guys." A faint blush appeared on his cheeks as he scratched the back of his neck in a nervous manner.

My temper died down as soon as he mentioned that his friend could cook really well, because between the both of us, the best thing we could make was peanut butter and jelly. So we weren't exactly Iron Chefs. I sorta like the idea of having an _older_ and _wiser_ male in the group because these two genius might drive me to an early insanity.

"Well, a heads up would've been nice." Max glared at the boy as he laughed nervously. I rested my head in my hand as I began to drag my fork against my empty plate.

"What about you May?" I looked up to see all eyes on me. What did I think? One minute I was mad enough to rip his head off now I'm content. Man is it that time of the month or what?

"I don't see anything wrong with it…" I heard my voice trail off as I was met by a striking pain in my head. On instinct I clutched it tightly with my left hand, as if it would help ease the pain in any way.

"You okay?" He asked me in a worried tone. I had one eye closed due to the pain. I gave him a slow nod as to reassure him that I was fine, but in all actuality I wasn't. This cold was catching up to me and fast. My throat was sore and my hands were freezing. I could already feel a tingling warmness rising to my cheeks as my head began to throb.

"I…I'm fine…ow…" I rested my head on my folded arms and continued to listen to their voices across the table. But slowly I felt myself drifting away. My eyelids felt heavy, as did my head. I couldn't fight it; I was about to be knocked out.

"May? Come on, I think you should get some rest." I felt Ash's hand on my back as he attempted to shake me awake. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes and sat up. For a second I couldn't remember where I was. Man, I can't believe how fast this got me. I sniffled a bit before standing up. Much to my knowledge, Ash stood up too. I felt his eyes on me as my feet hit the ground. But my legs began to ache and I could feel gravity taking over as I fell to my knees.

"…Great…" I mumbled sarcastically. Stupid Ash, I could've just fallen asleep at the table, but no I have to get up and rest in a bed. Why do things have to be so complicated?

"Whoa May! Come on, I'll take you to the room." His worried tone deepened as I looked up at him.

"Ah…why can't we stay here…?" I fell on my bottom with a thud. I could see a tiny smile appear on his face as he saw me in my childish state.

"You'll feel a whole lot better if you sleep in a bed." His voice sounded so persuasive, but at the moment all I could think about was sleep. He grabbed my hands and pulled me on my feet. That was some tug he had! It nearly knocked the wind out of me. In a second I felt my weight wanting to fall as I closed my eyes again, but this time they didn't open back up.

(Told in Ash POV)

As I pulled May off the ground, which was fairly easy, I felt her faltering slightly. I looked down to see her slowly closing her eyes. Yep, she was knocked out all right. With a sigh I picked her up and gave a wave to Max and Brendan who just sat there and watched the whole thing transpire. As I made my way out of the cafeteria my mind switched back to the girl I was carrying. She didn't look too good. This cold was no joke that's for sure; she may have even caught pneumonia. How fortunate.

"How do these things happen to you May?" I asked myself as I continued to carry her on my back. She was so light and good thing too. I could feel her hair tickling my ear as we walked on. She was breathing slowly in and out and she was really warm, too warm for my liking. We finally made it to the room and I opened the door and set her down on her bed. I felt her forehead, but quickly drew my hand back.

"Man, you're really burning up…" I mumbled to myself. I did the only thing I knew how to do at the moment. I entered the bathroom and grabbed a cloth and ran it under some ice-cold water. I rung it out slightly and reentered the room. I took her bandana off and placed the cloth over her forehead. Hopefully that would help. I had no idea what doing that actually did all I knew was that my mom used to do that whenever I got sick.

Before I was about to make my leave, I looked at her peaceful expression once more. It's amazing how sleep can change a person. She looked somewhat innocent when she slept. My face heated up as I continued to stare. Oh no! What if I'm getting sick too?! That would be a disaster! I quickly exited the room and made my way down to the lobby to pick up Pikachu and Treecko and then possibly head down to the mart to pick up some medicine for the ill girl.

Today was possibly the busiest day I had ever experienced in all my life. There was just so much going on I guess I could call myself a little bit overwhelmed. I can't even think straight. Oh boy what's a guy to do? I sighed to myself as I approached the counter.

"Hey Nurse Joy, is there a Pikachu and a Treecko here?" I asked. She nodded with a smile.

"Yes there is. I'm assuming the young lady that brought them to the counter was your girlfriend." She beamed a smile.

"No, she's not my-" I started

"Anyway, here you are. They're fit and ready to go!" she waved me off as Pikachu hopped on my shoulder.

"Hey Ash!" he chirped in my ear.

"Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" I asked him.

"Better, judging by how happy you seem my guess is that we won the gym battle?" he asked me. With a proud grin I nodded in his direction. He shoved one of his paws into the air with a loud 'Pika!' or 'Alright!' I laughed at his response.

"That is so awesome. Hey where's everyone else?" I watched him as he searched around for May and Max. I sighed as I prepared to fill him in.

"Max is in the cafeteria still with Brendan…you remember Brendan right?" he nodded his head in agreement. "And May…" it took my awhile to tell him about May as my mind drifted back to the HUGE mistake Nurse Joy made. Girlfriend? I shudder at the thought, but I quickly shook it from my head in order to avoid anymore awkward stares from him. "She's in the room asleep." He looked at me in a confused way.

"Why is she sleeping this early?" I shook my head.

"She's sick with a fever and everything." At that I noticed how his ears lowered.

"Aw, poor May. What are you gonna do about it?" I was trying to think about what to do but I just didn't know what.

"I'm gonna have to get her some medicine from the pharmacy. I don't know what else I could do." At that he rolled his eyes at me.

"Ugh, why not ask Nurse Joy? I mean they don't call her a NURSE for nothing." He gave me a sarcastic grin as I headed out the door toward the store. I shook my head. Man did he ever have a smart mouth, almost as bad as Max. Boy.

"Yeah, yeah. Watch your tone buddy." I shook my finger at him to which he rolled his little beady black eyes.

Soon we walked through the doors of the pharmacy and made our way to the aisle that was labeled 'Cold & Flu.' It's like the store knew exactly what I needed.

"How convenient! It's all right here." I grinned happily as Pikachu jumped off my shoulder and looked at the different medicine bottles.

"How much of this stuff do you guys need?" he asked in an astonished way. I shook my head at his question. He just didn't understand.

"Humans have much worse…uh…things than pokémon do like poison and paralysis. We can basically catch everything. So yes, all this crap is necessary just like an antidote is necessary for you." I smiled at him as he nodded his head.

"Finally using that brain of yours huh?" he gave me a playful grin and hopped back on my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and picked up a white medicine bottle that had cherry written across the top. I looked at the side-effects. It read: Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea.

"Wow…" I murmured as I put it back on the shelf. I continued to browse until I found something else. "TheraFlu huh?" I looked at the label and the only side-effect was drowsiness. "That's not too bad." I continued to look at it and made my decision. I continued to walk down the aisle until I saw her favorite food. Ramen. I picked up a couple of chicken flavored ones and made my way to the end. There were several brands of tissue boxes with different designs. One of the boxes that caught my attention was a red one with a picture of a Torchic sneezing. I thought it was kinda funny so I picked it up.

"Excuse me sir? I can help you right over here!" this very loud girl came up to me and dragged me over to the counter before I could put the box down. "Is this all for you?" she asked.

"I don't want the-" I'm tired of females interrupting me today.

"7.31 please." I sighed in defeat and gave her money as she handed me the sack and literally pushed me out the door. I gave a grunt as I stared back at the door.

"I hadn't planned on buying the tissues, I just thought they were cool." I frowned and marched back to the center. I could feel Pikachu shaking with laughter on the way back. "Oh yeah! Guess what? Brock's gonna join up with us. I called him today." He looked excited as I told him.

"Cool! I haven't seen Brock in a while." I walked inside the center and quickly spotted Max and Brendan talking to Nurse Joy.

"…He left about 10 minutes ago." I heard her say.

"Thanks Nurse Joy." Brendan said as him and Max turned around. That's when they noticed me.

"Hey! There you are!" Max exclaimed as he walked up to me with an almost blank expression.

"Were you looking for me?" I asked with a questionable look.

"Yeah, I mean you and May just left me in the cafeteria with this weirdo over here." He gestured towards Brendan who obviously wasn't paying attention. I sweat-dropped at Max's statement. "By the way, where'd you go?" I gestured for him to follow me to the room.

"I went to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine for May. Last time I check, she had a really bad fever." I explained as I stuck my key in the hole.

(Told in May's POV)

_Everything looked so black. Everything felt so cold. I couldn't see anything, it was like I was trapped at the bottom of nothingness. The air was thin and my breathing was rough. Where am I? I continued to look around trying to see through the void that surrounded me, but…nothing._

"_May…" not him. My father. I saw him standing in front of me with a scowl plastered on his face. I recognized it all too well. It seemed like everyday I would catch a glimpse of that face of his. My gaze drifted downward in order to avoid his glare. Things just got worse from there. I've seen this dream before._

"_I'm disappointed in you…" I mouthed everyone word he said. I've heard too many times not to know what he's going to say._

"_Your mother would be ashamed…" that hurt._

"_Why are you like this…" I don't know dad._

"_You killed her…" I didn't mean to._

"_How could I ever love you…" the feeling is mutual. What did I do to deserve such a crappy father who cared more about the ground he walked on than he did about me? I bet he wishes everyday that I was never born so my mother could still be with him. I'm a daily reminder of her and it kills him that I'm still alive._

_I'm tired of this. I'm tired of him hating me. I'm tired of being treated like an unwanted burden. I'm tired of my life. I'm tired of trying to gain his respect, which is something I'll never get. I'm tired of crying myself to sleep when I think of how much I want his love. Most of all, I'm tired of hating him._

"_I hate you…" I murmured. I could feel his stare burning my skin._

"_What?" he answered._

"_I hate you. I hate you!" I yelled. I could feel the tears coming in so I closed my eyes in an attempt to stop them. "I hate you!" I could feel him slipping away from me as I continued to yell. I tasted the salty tears in my mouth. Everything around me began to fade and I felt dizziness._

"_May? May?" Was that…was that Ash? I couldn't tell, I was too mad. Slowly I felt everything sipping away from me…_

…_Did I really hate him though…_

"May, wake up!" slowly, my eyes opened and the blurriness began to fade. I took into view Max, Brendan, Ash, and Pikachu. Everything felt so clouded and dim. I blinked a couple times trying to figure out where I was and why they're all staring at me.

"Wha…what?" I asked in a haspy voice. I noticed Max sigh as he gave me a smile.

"You were having a nightmare. How do you feel?" Ash asked me as I tried to sit up, but it was really hard to do so.

"Ugh…like crap…" I laid back down the pulled the blanket over my arms as a wave of cold washed over me.

"Well, I got you some medicine. It'll make you feel better." I have no idea what he just said, but I smiled like I heard it perfectly. But after that, everything just started to fade away.

**Kris: Okay Typhlosion, use a strength attack!**

**Ash: Dodge it Charizard and go in for a wing attack.**

**May: I guess we'll be talking about the chapter since Kris is a little preoccupied at the moment.**

**Max: Geez, she made dad evil in this chapter.**

**AJ: More than normal.**

**Mikey: Yeah but it was just a dream. He'd never say that.**

**May: Out loud…**

**Kris: Hey Readers! This is the end of this chapter. I hope I didn't take too long updating this story. Alright! Blaze is kicking in! Anyway, tell me what you think.**

**Mikey: Brock will probably appear in the next chapter so be ready for that.**

**AJ: And May is sick. The fever is effecting her dreams.**

**Kris: That happens to me all the time. Oh yeah, we're in the prime of this battle now!**

**Ash: I'm so pumped!**

**All: Review! 4 Sure!**


	18. Likeness

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone!**

**Mikey: I like pie.**

**Kris: OMG! Me too!**

**May: Wow you guys finally have something in common.**

**Ash: Small world ain't it?**

**AJ: Hey! I like pie too!!!**

**All: No you don't. You hate pie almost as much as you hate Rona.**

**Rona: You hate me?!?!?!******

**AJ: No! They're lying!!!**

**Kris: Sure…DISCLAIMER TIME!!!**

**Rona: KrystalClear101 is not the owner of pokémon.**

**Kris: No I am not. But I SO own AJ & Mikey!**

**Both: Hey!**

**All: Shut up and start the party!!!  
**

Chapter 18

Likeness

_(Last Time…)_

"_May, wake up!" Slowly, my eyes opened and the blurriness began to fade. I took into view Max, Brendan, Ash, and Pikachu. Everything felt so clouded and dim. I blinked a couple times trying to figure out where I was and why they were all staring at me._

"_Wha…what?" I asked in a raspy voice. I noticed Max sigh as he gave me a smile._

"_You were having a nightmare. How do you feel?" Ash asked me as I tried to sit up, but it was really hard to do so._

"_Ugh…like crap…" I laid back down the pulled the blanket over my arms as a wave of cold washed over me._

"_Well, I got you some medicine. It'll make you feel better." I have no idea what he just said, but I smiled like I heard it perfectly. But after that, everything just started to fade away._

(Told in Ash's POV) 

I saw her smile as she slowly closed her eyes. I could tell she was in a state of peace at that moment because of the small curve on her lips. It made me smile somewhat. I took the blanket and tucked her in tightly before turning around to face Brendan and Max. I looked at both of their faces and saw smiles. It confused me as to why they would be smiling and laughing at time like this.

"What are you guys laughing at?" I asked in a sort of offensive tone. Max looked like he was about to burst while Brendan just smiled like an idiot. Pikachu gave a soft coo and I looked at him in confusion. I brushed it off and started walking towards the door. Soon after I moved, I heard their footsteps behind me. I heard Max snicker as he shut the door. This made me kind of upset now.

"Okay, now what is so funny?" I asked in a serious tone this time. A few seconds later, Max started laughing as Brendan stood idly with that dumb grin on his face. I could feel the anger boiling up inside me as Max laughed and laughed and laughed.

"You really don't know, do you?' Brendan asked me. Well, maybe I would if you guys would tell me. I was getting madder and madder by the second, and Max's uncontrollable laughter wasn't helping either.

"You _so_ like her dude." Brendan said with a smirk as he walked away. What? I like who? This confused me so I followed him.

"What are you talking about? Who?" I asked as I started walking with him. He chuckled softly as Max came up beside us wiping his eyes form crying with laughter.

"May. It's so obvious man." At that comment I looked at him strangely. Of course I like May otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to travel with her and stuck around this long.

"Well yeah. I like May a lot. But I don't get how that's funny." After I said that, he stopped and looked at me. Max looked at me too. I felt as if I were a monkey on display, the way they were staring at me.

"What?" I asked. Brendan rolled his eyes as Max smacked himself in the face.

"You are so dense." I'm dense? What's that mean?

"What do you mean?" I looked at him with the most honest expression I could muster. I heard him sigh as he stopped walking and he looked at me with a blank expression.

"Okay, you know the difference between liking someone as a friend and liking someone as more than a friend right?" he tried to explain. Of course I understood that!

"Yeah, like best friends." I smiled feeling knowledgeable. But I guess the feeling wasn't mutual because of his disappointing reaction. He grunted and led Max and me over to one of the lobby couches.

"Let me explain this to you. There's liking someone as a friend or best friend and there's liking someone as more than a friend. When you like someone as more than a friend it usually means that you wanna go out with them. You know, like a boyfriend/girlfriend type thing. Are you following me on this?" he asked. I nodded slowly. I still didn't get the funny part in all of this.

"You, Ash, like May as more than a friend." He finished with a smile. Okay, what? I like May…as more than a friend…

"How so?" I asked. How in the heck did he come to that conclusion?

"Like I said before, it's so obvious. Like how you took care of her when you found out she was sick. You even tucked her. I'm not surprised you didn't kiss her forehead." He laughed as he looked at Max.

"I told you they liked each other." Max spoke up. I looked at Max with a shocked expression as Brendan nodded.

"I only did those things because she's my friend and I care about her." I said with a shrug.

"Have you ever thought about her in that way?" They began to stare at me again.

"The heck if I know?!" At that, they all fell over weirdly and Pikachu sweat-dropped.

.-.

I sighed, so many things had happened today. Too many things had happened today. We met Max, I got my badge, May is sick, and Brock is coming tomorrow. But thank Ho-Oh it's finally time to go to sleep. I smiled as my face hit the pillow with a soft thud. Pikachu curled up at my feet as I slipped under the covers and closed my eyes. Max was in the other bed and Brendan had left after making me face the reality that I like May as more than a friend. But what I still didn't understand was how that was so funny. Oh well, no use in trying to figure it out now. It's sleep time now.

"Ash?" I heard a soft whisper. I snapped my eyes opened and looked over to May's side of the room. Her eyes were slightly open.

"Ash? Are you awake?" It took me awhile to register her voice in my head. The tone that she spoke in was so raspy.

"Yeah." I whispered back. "Is something the matter?' I asked.

"I'm really hot." She sounded so miserable.

"I think that's a good thing. You're sweating out the fever." I said as I pulled back the covers and walked over to her. I saw her smile slightly after I made that comment.

"Okay then. Ash?" I heard her call again.

"Yeah?" I slowly sat on the bed as she tried to sit up. "Just take it easy okay?" She nodded and started to lay back down.

"Thanks Ash. For everything…you're a really great guy." She smiled sweetly at me. I felt my face heat up. I can't believe May thought of me in that way. She thinks I'm a really great guy.

"I'm lucky…to have met someone like you." With that, she dozed off. She closed her eyes with the smile still evident on her face. I smiled too and took the cloth off her face to dip in more cold water. Once that was done, I placed it back on her forehead gently. I watched her sleep for a few seconds before returning to my own bed. But what she said to me…it stuck.

It was still a surprise to me that she thought of me like that. I mean I had always known she liked me but…maybe it's like what Brendan said. The difference between liking as friends and liking as more than friends. Do I like her as more than I friend? Does she like me as more than a friend? How can I be sure about my feelings? How do I know for sure?

Life is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. I thought all you would have to do is get your pokémon, train, have battles, and die. That's all I thought life was about. But then you add liking people and all of the sudden life gets all confusing and uncomfortable. Who am I supposed to talk to about my feelings? I can't talk to Max, he's too young to really understand even though he thinks he does. I definitely can't talk to May, nor will I. I guess that leaves Brock and Pikachu.

.-.

"Hey Ash?" I heard a voice whisper in my ear. "Ash…wake up. Your friend is here." It sounded like Max. "He's a real pervert, you know that?" At that last comment I opened my eyes to see Max looking down on me with a confused look on face. Upon further inspection I also noticed my old friend Brock standing behind Max, sweat dropping at the boys' comment.

"Hey Brock! Longtime no see!" I got up out of bed to greet him.

"Hey Ash, it really has been a long time huh? You seem to be taking care of yourself." He smiled at me as I nodded. I looked over to see Pikachu still napping at the foot of the bed.

"Pikachu wake up, Brock's here." I whispered as I somewhat shook him. He stretched lazily and yawned. In a few more seconds he was already on my shoulder looking at Brock.

"Pikachu pi!" He exclaimed.

"Nice to see you too Pikachu! He looks really healthy Ash. I take it you've been taking good care of him like always right?" I nodded. Brock has always been one to care about a pokémon's condition.

"Oh yeah, this is Max. I'm sure you've already met him though." Max fixed his glasses as he looked over at Brock and shook his head.

"Yeah, he sort of took over the position of Misty as far meeting girls goes." Brock scratched behind his head and laughed.

"Still the same old Brock." I shook my head and looked over at May's sleeping form.

"And over there still asleep is May. She's Max's older sister….as of yesterday. She's sick at the moment." I explained. Brock nodded his head and walked over to her bedside.

"And no flirting! She's only ten you pervert!" Max added as he began to get offensive with how close Brock was standing to May. A second later May erupted into a series of coughs. Once she had stopped, her eyes opened wearily. That was kind of scary.

"Mmm…who the heck are you?" She asked as she finally noticed Brock staring down on her strangely. Hey, at least she was finally feeling better. While him and May were getting acquainted, I took the time to notice how much Brock had changed over the past month or so.

He was still pretty much taller than me and his hair was as spiky as ever. He now wore a brown jacket with orange collars, brown cargo pants with several pockets, and brown shoes to finish the look off. His eyes were still squinty as well so it was hard to tell whether they were open or closed, that always confused me about him and his entire family.

"May, this is my friend Brock. You know the guy I was telling you about yesterday." She looked at me tiredly and nodded. Brock had a slight smile on his face as he looked at the girl. Slowly he put his hand to her forehead but drew it back.

"Hmm…she has a slightly high fever. How long have you been sick May?" Brock asked as he began to dig in his large backpack for something.

"Since yesterday." She whispered and began to cough again. Every time she coughed, I jumped slightly.

"Common cold?" he looked up at me. I nodded slowly and just looked at her blue eyes shining dully against the florescent lighting in the room. I looked over at Max and noticed him sitting on my bed looking out the window with his legs swinging absentmindedly back and forth. He wore a blank expression as he stared at the rays of sunlight that entered the room.

**Kris: Okay, I know that was a weird way to end the chapter but hey, I'm an idealist…whatever that is…**

**May: Who won the battle?**

**Ash: …she did…but she cheated!!!**

**Kris: Don't be a sore loser Ash. Remember…I beat Red.**

**Max: Oh wow! What did he say?**

**Kris: He didn't say anything. You know Red doesn't speak.**

**Brock: Yah, he's like a…mute…or something.**

**Max: How would you know Brock?**

**May: And where did you come from?**

**Brock: I know because I'm a realist…whatever that is…and as for where I came from, when a mommy and a daddy really like each other they get drunk and-**

**Kris: Okay, whoa? She asked where, not how you pervert. Anyway, review or be a loser!!!**

**All: Review or be a loser! 4 Sure!**


	19. The Journey

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Cheese!**

**May: You really like cheese huh?**

**Kris: I love it!**

**May: I love-**

**Gary: Me!**

**May: No, I love Ash!**

**Ash: Yes! I win where it counts!**

**Kris: Hey, where are-**

**May: They're at grandma's house.**

**Kris: Whoa, how'd you know?**

**Ash: She's like…psycho…**

**Gary: Psychic you idiot.**

**May: Side kick!**

**Kris: I don't own Pokémon!**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 19

The Journey

(Told in May's POV)

"Are you nuts?! Petalburg is obviously that way. I'm the one with the PokéNav here!" I shouted angrily at Ash as the four of us stood in the middle of the road.

"Hey! I have a PokéNav too you know!" he yelled back showing his off.

"Well you obviously don't know how to use it!" I retorted with a smirk. God I knew how to push his buttons.

"Neither do you!" And he knew how to push mine. Back and forth it went; me yelling at him and him yelling at me. I'm wondering how long it would go on. I looked over at Brock and Max, watching their tired looking expressions and I thought to myself…why were we doing this?

It never used to be like this. We never argued, in fact we were really good friends up until a week ago. I think it was after I got over my cold and we started back on the road again. Ash started acting really weird and now we fight over everything. I don't get it. Did someone replace him while I was drugged up on medicine or something? What happened to the Ash that I met before?

"Alright guys that's enough." Brock spoke up, placing a hand on both our shoulders. "You've been going at ever since we got out of the woods. What's gotten into you two?" he scratched his head and stared at us.

"It's not me, it's him! He's the one acting weird." I pointed a stiff finger at the accused causing all eyes to fall on him.

"What do you mean he's acting weird?" Max asked me.

"I don't know I…" I honestly couldn't answer because I didn't know why he was acting weird. "But he just is!" I threw my hands up in the air and turned away from the trio of boys. Heh, it's a bit funny how one spontaneously turned into three. I heard Ash sigh audibly as he too turned away. I too gave into the sighing frenzy as I let my hands fall to my sides as well.

"Look, I-" we both said at the same time. He was facing me and I was facing him. I could see a bit of red rise to his cheeks as he looked at me. It confused me.

"I'm sorry May. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." He admitted while scratching his head in an embarrassed way.

"I was wrong too. Don't try to take all the blame Ash." I smiled and lightly punched him in the shoulder. He grinned at me as did Pikachu. After our little apology spell, we turned around to face Max and Brock, only to realize that they had walked way ahead of us.

"Hey!" we both shouted, running after them.

.-.

So here we are again, sitting in a circle around the fire as the sun goes down. It's a mild temperature out. Ash's Pikachu is sitting on my sleeping having a little conversation with Max who is not too far away while Brock is inspecting Ash's Tailow and Treecko. Ash went off somewhere to train with his Treecko while I'm sitting at the truck off a tree with both my pokémon at my sides. Torchic being as curious as ever and Wurmple slowly nodding off.

"*Hey! What's that guy over there doing?*" Torchic asked, cutely tilting her head to the side.

"He's doing some kind of breeder thing." I answered.

"*Oh," she replied. "*What's a breeder?*" she asked again.

"Well, it's someone who takes the time to raise their pokémon by using different types of food and specific routines and things like that." I explained. She seemed to be satisfied as she went back to pecking the ground again. I smiled as I looked up at the darkening sky. But my mind went back to why Ash had been acting so strange.

Ever since we left Rustboro he's been acting so hostile around me like he is nervous around me or he can't talk to me anymore without starting an argument. I've always been a non-confrontational kind of person and he kinda seems that way too but recently? Eh, not so much.

"I'm back!" his voice rang throughout the area that we were sitting in as he walked over to his sleeping bag with his Treecko close behind with a twig in his mouth. I never knew pokémon strived to be cool. At the sound of his voice, Torchic popped her head up and her tiny eyes focused on the gecko pokémon.

"*Hey! It's Treecko!*" she shrieked as she hopped over to her friend. Over time I guess they had become really good friends. I always see them laughing or talking about something. It made me smile. But soon it turned into a bit of a frown as I looked over at Ash. Hmm, I wonder…

"Guys, I think we should start to get ready for bed now." Brock advised. Great a second mother. He even wears an apron sometimes. "We've got a long way to go tomorrow and we don't want to be tired." He explained.

"I was looking at May's PokéNav today and I think we should be there by the late afternoon." Max explained. How'd he get a hold of my PokéNav? I shrugged and took out Wurmple's pokéball to return it. As I got up, I dusted off my skirt and walked over to my sleeping bag and sat down, looking at the ball in my hands.

"Hey May?" There he was, rhyming things with my name again.

"Yeah?" I answered turning around to face the hat clad boy.

"Uh…can I talk to you about something?" He asked. He seemed a bit off track. "In private?" he looked over at Max and Brock and saw them getting ready for bed.

"Um…okay then. Sure." I stood back up as he gave a grin.

"Hey we're going for a walk, be right back." He told them. They both nodded uneasily, but nodded all the same. As we walked out of the area I began to think to myself again. What could he possibly want to talk about?

"So what's up?" I asked once we got a good distance away from Max and Brock.

"About tomorrow. How are you planning on explaining the whole Max thing to your parents?" he asked me with a concerned expression.

Truthfully, I had no idea on what to do about the Max ordeal. I was just going to roll with the punches. You know, think of it as I went along.

"I…I really don't know Ash." I admitted. It was at that moment that this reality finally caught up with me. All this time I was racking my brain trying to figure out what was wrong with Ash when I should've been trying to think of a way to break the news about Max to my parents.

I fell on my knees with a lost expression on my face. I can't handle this. Not now at least. I need more time.

"Is it…is it possible for us to come back another time?" I asked hopefully.

"May, you can't run away from this." He said. I knew he was going to say that.

"I know, but I'm just not ready to face my parents right now. To face my…dad." My eyes drifted to the side to avoid his stare. And my surprise, he bent down to look at me and he wore that understanding smile on his face like before.

"It's okay. I understand. I don't know how…but I do. I'm sure there's a way for us to come back another time. After all, I still have to get my badge, right?" he grinned. I smiled too. He was slowly returning to his old self.

"Right. Thanks Ash." I smiled. He nodded and reached down to help me back onto my feet. But as I began to stand, my leg gave in and before I knew it, I was falling right into him. Apparently he couldn't take my weight and his, so he fell back causing me to go down with him. All in all, it was a very uncomfortable situation.

"Ouch…" he muttered beneath me. I opened my eyes to find myself in a terribly awkward position. But I was locked in his brown eyes and found myself immobile.

"Are you okay?" I whispered to him. He nodded his head slowly. I began to feel very warm at that moment. Slowly, I pushed myself up and stood a few fight away from him to avoid anymore moments like that.

"Sorry, I just. Uh…sorry." I was at a loss for words. I heard him chuckle a bit.

"I-It's okay." He stuttered a bit. I looked at his face as noticed that shade of lingering red again. "Come on, let's head back to camp." He said as he pulled the brim of his hat down and walked away. I sighed and followed close behind.

My life just got a little less complicated. The only real worry I have right now is getting ready for the contests that I hope to be entering pretty soon. Now that this whole 'dad' thing is off of my plate for the time being, I find myself getting really excited about contests. I wonder what entering one would be like. I wonder what other coordinators would be like. Are they beginners like me, or veterans like that lady I saw on TV?

There are so many different people in the world with so many different dreams like mine. I guess I'm finally beginning to realize that. It makes me anxious to get out there and show the world what I can do, but I need to be ready. I can't just wake up one day and be the best there is. I have to train hard and work hard to get what I want. And I want to be the best coordinator out there.

**Kris: This one is a little shorter than the rest of the other chapters that I've posted so far. So my apologies for that.**

**May: You're apologizing for more?**

**Kris: Yes. You see after this chapter…this story…**_**My Journey with Fire Leftovers**_**…is going on hiatus.**

**All: O_o**

**Kris: At least until I finish **_**What If.**_

**Ash: Aw! Just when we were getting to the good part too.**

**Kris: I know! And I'm sorry. Please don't hate me for it.**

**All: Review! 4 Sure!**

**R&R**


	20. What to do in Dewford

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! It feels great to be updating this story after so long!**

**Ash: Yes! I haven't been cancelled!**

**Max: Not yet anyway…**

**May: Don't say stuff like Max!**

**Brock: So, what's going on?**

**Kris: It's an update! Aren't you excited?**

**Brock: Uhm…yeah I guess…**

**Kris: Hmph! For lacking enthuse you must do the disclaimer!**

**All: -gasp-**

**Brock: Okay, you don't own Pokémon?**

**All: Fail!**

**Disclaimer: Let a pro show you how it's done. Ahem! KrystalClear101 doesn't not own Pokémon…AT ALL!**

**Kris: Thank you sooo much! Please enjoy!**

**All: Start the Party!**

Chapter 20

What to do in Dewford

It was a nice calm, quiet day in Dewford as our heroes docked on the shores of the small town. Full of excitement, they walked off the bridge of the boat and bid their captain a happy farewell before stepping onto the sandy ground.

"Man! Three days of nonstop sailing can really take a toll on the body." May exclaimed as she stretched her arms out. The three males seemed to agree as they all made their way to the pokémon center on the west side of town.

Max was currently holding May's PokeNav and leading while the other three opted to stand behind and take in all the sights. Brock flipped thoughtfully through a town brochure, Ash kept an eye out for the gym and May was looking for something, anything interesting.

"Well guys, there's a number of things we can do here before and after Ash gets his badge, so what'll it be?" Brock said as he pocketed the book. Max continued staring at the LCD screen as the group walked on.

"Well, we definitely need to stop at the Pokémon center before we do anything. Then I'd like to train before I go to the gym." Ash said. The rest of them seemed to agree.

"Hmm, well Ash can train but I would like to explore the island." May added with a wide grin. Max seemed intrigued by this idea.

"I think exploring would be pretty cool. I've already got the whole map of Dewford on the PokéNav so we could go together!" he exclaimed.

"That's the spirit!" May ruffled his hair playfully. "What about you Brock?" May asked.

"I should probably go to the market and pick up something. Then I'll probably meet up with Ash later on in the day." Brock said. They all seemed to agree on the plans.

"We can call each on Ash and May's PokeNav if anything happens. Let's meet at the Pokémon center when it's all said and done, okay?" the group nodded and stepped foot into the cool building. Ash, May and Brock handed over their pokémon to Nurse joy and waited as she healed their pokémon.

Max fiddled with the PokéNav, picking out which places him and May could check out while also finding a good training spot for Ash. For some reason, he always had a knack for figuring out things about technology better than others. Once the pokémon were all healed up, they rented a room for their stay in Dewford.

"So Max, find any good places to explore? Maybe a cave or something." May suggested. Max cocked a brow then smiled as they exited the center.

"There's Dewford cave. You wanna go there?" he asked. May brought a thoughtful finger to her chin as she began to pace the lobby floor.

"Dewford cave, huh? Well, now that you mention it, me and caves don't get along all that well. Plus they're pretty dark and mysterious. But then again, I do like exploring. Okay! Let's do it!" She decided. Max rolled his eyes at her as the two stepped back out into the early afternoon after May grabbed her pokéballs.

All the while this was happening, Ash and Brock watched as the girl had an entire conversation with herself and acted like it was okay. Brock shrugged and Ash gave a small smile before they too retrieved their designated pokéballs and started for the exit as well.

"This is just like old times, huh Ash?" Brock asked. Ash nodded with a cocky grin. He gave Pikachu a quick scratch behind the ears before looking over the town once more. It was a small quaint town with a few houses here and there, a general store and a nice beach by the shore.

"Yup. It feels good to be on land again. Now we can get down to business and do some serious training for my second Hoenn badge!" he exclaimed. "Come on out guys!" he tossed two pokeballs into the air and out came Treecko and Tailow. Both acknowledged their trainer with a quick nod.

"Let's go!" With that, Ash took off running with his three pokémon trailing behind him with Brock watching from a distance with a familiar grin on his face.

"Some thing's never change." He chuckled lightly.

Ash savored the cool ocean breeze as he sprinted across the warm shore. It was moments like these that made him love being a trainer. Just being outside with his pokémon and running like there was no tomorrow. He turned back to look at the three who were keeping a steady pace with him, Tailow flying above and Pikachu with Treecko running side by side.

"All right! Now that we're all warmed up, let's work on some attack moves!" he exclaimed. The three cheered right along with him in excitement. Unbeknowst to them, they were being watched by one pair of interested eyes from the bushes.

_Let us divert our story over to May and Max and their cave excursion._

"So this is Dewford cave? It's nice…if that's what you want to call it." May commented.

"It's a cave, what else can you say about it? It's nice…" he rolled his eyes at her. May fumed and walked ahead of him with her head held high.

"Who cares what you say Max, you're just jealous of my insight." May laughed lightly as she gave him a gently shove. He smiled and pushed her hand away.

"STOP!" a manly voice yelled from in front of them. May's eyes widened and Max instinctively clung to her side. In front of them was a large burly man wearing brown jacket with tons of pockets and brown pants with tons of pockets as well. Around his neck was a red scarf and a hiker's hat on his head.

"It's dark in Dewford cave! You must have the hidden machine FLASH in order to make it through the rest of the cave!" he exclaimed. May swallowed her anxiety and took a slight step forward since Max was hanging on her like koala on a tree.

"Uhm, can't we just use a flashlight?" she asked, cautiously. The man looked baffled for a quick second before a grin broke out on his beard covered face.

"YES! That works also! But please, take this Hidden Machine FLASH and teach it to one of your pokemon!" he handed May a white cd with the words FLASH written across it. May took it in her hands an examined it for a quick second before shrugging and placing it in her fanny pack.

"Thanks, er…"

"Hiker Hank my dear!" he shouted causing them to flinch.

"Uhm, Trainer May and…little brother Max?" she answered questionably. With that, they waved to the large fellow and continued on their way.

"That wasn't creepy at all." Max sighed.

"Tell me about it. Thanks for the marks you left in my leg, I've always wanted them." She remarked sarcastically. Max recoiled back with an embarrassed blush on his face. She smiled and placed a hand on his head. Soon they came upon a ladder that led to the bottom level of the cave.

"I'll go first." May piped. She bent down and grabbed onto the sides of the ladder and slowly slid herself down. She took it one step at a time until she reached the bottom where it was completely pitch black. "Whoa, I guess that guy was right." She said as she dug into her pack for her flashlight.

She flipped it on and called for Max to make his way down as well. Once he was at her side, they walked on, relying on the light from the handheld device to guide their way. May moved the light from side to side as they walked and kept a close eye on everything that was going on.

Suddenly, there was a screeching in the distance that startled them both, May maneuvered the flashlight over to where the sound came from and spotted a bat looking pokémon luring dangerously over them. Max quickly dug in her pack and pulled out her pokédex.

"_Zubat. The bat pokemon. It lurks in dark places, mainly at night and uses supersonic waves to confuse prey."_ The machine hummed.

"Zubat huh? Go Wurmple!" she exclaimed. She tossed the pokéball and out came her first caught partner. He slithered around a bit before getting in a battle stance.

"Hey buddy, ready for a battle?" she asked.

"Yup!" he replied, happily.

"Okay, use string shot then go into poison sting!" she called. He quickly shot out a stinky shot of web at the bat and managed to tag its left wing, causing it to come tumbling to the ground. Before his opponent could respond, Wurmple shot a series of purple needles lined with poison.

"Good, now use tackle!" she command. Wurmple moved as fast as he could but wasn't quick enough to hit Zubat before it recovered from his last it attack. Once up in the air, Zubat opened its mouth wide and screeched out a loud supersonic directly at the worm pokémon, confusing it.

"That's Zubat's supersonic, May. Wurmple's probably confused." Max commented. May gritted her teeth in frustration and tried to focus the light in such a way so that both Zubat and Wurmple would be visible.

"Come on little guy, snap out it so we can finish this! Tackle!" she called it. He squinted his glazed over eyes and made a quick run at Zubat who was staggering in its flight patterns a bit. Through his confusion, Wurmple shot at the flying pokémon and hit the main part of its body, sending it to ground once again.

"All right!" May cheered. Zubat struggled a bit but was deemed unfit to battle after a few seconds.

"Phew! That was close." Max sighed. He was about to put May's pokédex back in her pack when he noticed a bright light coming from where Wurmple was sitting at. "May look!" he shouted.

"Hmm? What the…" she gasped at the sight before her. Her Wurmple was engulfed in a blinding light that lit of the whole bottom floor of the cave easily.

"He's…he's evolving…Max! He's evolving! Wurmple's evolving!" she cheered as she watched his form change slowly. He went from a worm looking thing to a…cocoon looking thing?

"_Silcoon. The cocoon pokémon. After evolving, Silcoon develops hardening techniques in order to protect itself from predators."_ The pokédex hummed once more. May ran to the newly evolved Silcoon and picked up in her arms.

"You evolved! I'm so proud of you! Gosh, just wait until Torchic hears, she's gonna be super jealous!" she gushed at him. He smiled approvingly and nodded in his own little way.

_Back to Ash and Brock_

"Yeah! Good job guys!" Ash called out to his panting group of partners. They took a quick break on the sand and just stared out at the ocean. "Man, this next battle is gonna be epic."

"Pika pi, kachu pi pikachu?" the electric type asked.

"Hmm? I guess we should figure out the type. Heh, that would help." He laughed sheepishly. Pikachu sweat-dropped and returned to its reclining position.

"All done for the day, Ash?" Brock asked from above him. In his arms where several bags from the general store.

"Not quite. I want to get one more in before we go look for May and Max." He replied.

"Okay, don't work too hard." Brock advised before he turned and looked back to the direction of the pokémon center. Ash stretched on good time before he hopped onto his feet with that air of confidence around him once more.

"Back to work guys!" the three pokémon stood and stretched before resuming their respective training regimes. The pair of eyes was still watching with anticipation to interrupt the session with its presence. One can assume the urge got too strong since it decided to burst out of the bushes and strike an obvious pose.

"Corphish!" it exclaimed. Ash and the rest looked on in surprise while Ash decided to pull out his pokédex.

"_Corphish, the shellfish pokémon. It uses its large pincers to eat and protect itself." _

"A Corphish, huh? This could be great practice! Let's go Tailow!" he called out to the bird pokémon. "Use tackle!"

To start, Tailow flew low to the ground then increased its speed right when it was in front of its opponent and struck it hard with its beak. Corphish tumbled backwards but eventually got back on its feet and opened one of its pincers for a nice bubblebeam attack.

"Whoa! That's Corphish's bubblebeam." Brock pointed out. Tailow came tumbling down to the ground with a thud and struggled to pick itself up from the.

"Come on Tailow, you can do it!" it twitched a bit with one eye clenched shut from the dust that had gathered after its fall. With one last burst of energy Tailow managed to push itself off the ground, but not quite in the air. "Alright. Take it easy pal and got in for a tackle attack!"

Corphish narrowed its eyes and let a shine go across its entire body, preparing itself for another attack. Tailow went it for the tackle but staggered back once contact was made for its opponent had secretly used Harden in order to boost its defense.

"T-tai…l-low…" it growled out before falling to the ground for the final time. Not only was it battle battered but tired from training as well. Ash gave a sad smile as he pulled out Tailow's designated pokéball.

"Good work, you rest now. Let's finish this up Treecko!" The grass type hopped up from behind and immediately went on the offense with a surprise pound attack which surprised Corphish out of his arrogance. It fell on its side and angrily stood up, aiming its pincer for another bubblebeam.

"Dodge it!" Ash commanded. Quick on his feet, Treecko sprinted around the water type until it ran out of bubbles, tired and dizzy. "Now use bullet seed!"

"Tree-cko!" a rain of seeds shot right out of his mouth and onto Corphish where it created a cloud of dust that made it nearly impossible to see. Ash saw this as he opportunity to strike.

"Now's my chance, pokéball go!" he shouted at he tossed the familiar red and white ball in the direction of the wild pokémon. It made a solid hit and sucked the pokémon into the ball and fell to the ground.

One wiggle.

Two wiggles.

Three wiggles.

**Kris: Bahahahaha! I'm so evil! **

**May: You're ending it here?**

**Ash: I'm stil awesome!**

**Kris: Yes…yes I am.**

**May: ?**

**Brock: Hey! I was in this chapter!**

**Kris: Yes…yes you were.**

**Max: Right…stay tuned for her next update…which will be approximately one year!**

**Kris: Max!**

**All: Thanks for reading! 4 Sure!**

**R&R**


	21. Puppy Love

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Oh my goodness, it's friggin' March already!**

**May: You know what that means!**

**All: SPRING BREAK!**

**Kris: And more time to write stories!**

**Max: Or slack off in your case…**

**Kris: You know what kid? One of these days I'm totally gonna kick you out.**

**Max: I'd really like to see that.**

**Ash: Me too.**

**Kris: Well maybe your wish will come true by the end of the chapter. Disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: This chick with the long name doesn't own pokemon. **

**May: You know, you used a double negative last time.**

**Disclaimer: Damn…I didn't think anyone would notice…**

**All: Nice try! Start the party!**

Chapter 21

Puppy Love

_Ping._

Ash could barely hold in his excitement as the pokeball ceased all movement and he quickly bent over to pick it up. He grinned widely and tossed the item in the air before quickly catching it with confidence. Pikachu hopped on his shoulder and gave the trainer an approving pat on the head while Treecko looked on with pride, a familiar twig sticking out of his mouth.

"All right! My third Hoenn pokemon. We're on a roll, guys." Ash exclaimed. Brock shook his head from the sidelines and gazed at his watch quickly before he walked up to the excited trainer.

"We should probably head over to the pokemon center to meet up with the others." He advised. Ash returned Treecko and attached his pokeball as well the new one to his belt. Once that was done, they started the trek down the beach towards the center. As he walked on, Ash's mind drifted to their time back in Rustboro.

"Hmm, why do I have a feeling that we're supposed to do something…" he voice trailed off at that. Brock eyed him strangely before he shrugged, ignoring the boy's outer thoughts. It wasn't long before they reached the red roofed center and Ash handed off all four of his pokemon to the nurse and allowed her to heal them. The two looked around the center, trying to catch any sign of their other two companions. They deduced that Max and May were probably still out exploring.

"I guess we wait for them to get back." Brock advised as he took a seat in one of the lobby chairs.

"I guess," Ash shrugged. _'I hope she hasn't gotten into some kind of mess…'_

* * *

Once May's elation reached its peak, she sighed contently and let Silcoon rest in her arms before she turned to her brother who was a little less excited than she was. Cocking a brow at his silence May opened her mouth to question him only for the boy himself to beat her to the punch.

"Silcoon's a great pokemon and all but I kind of wanted him to evolve into Cascoon…" he shuffled his feet against the cave floor. May's eye twitched at his revelation as he fist clenched repeatedly.

"Max…" she growled. This was the second time he had the nerve to criticize her pokemon. One would think he would've learned after getting the snot pecked out of him by Torchic. But no, this was obviously a hard lesson to learn.

"Silcoon!" the coccon pokemon shot a quick and sticky string shot out at Max who gasped in shock. May only snickered at the attack while Max struggled to free himself.

"Ew! That's so gross!" he exclaimed.

"Well, maybe that'll teach you to watch your mouth next time." May huffed as she turned to walk in a different direction. Freeing himself from the goo, Max followed closely behind his sister and her newly evolved bug type. They walked in silence for awhile, the only sounds being their feet scuffing the ground. In the distance, May noticed some sort of doorway and motioned for Max to see as well.

"You think it's an extension to the cave or something?" he asked, pushing his frames up the bridge of his nose. May shrugged but continued on with a daring smile on her face.

"Don't know but let's check it out anyway." Swallowing his anxiety, Max followed closely behind the 'curious' brunette all the way through the strange doorway. It was much brighter on the other side causing May to turn her flashlight off and place it in her pocket. They looked around, gazing at the cave walls in silence. There seemed to be some sort of path that curved around slightly.

"Where do you think it leads?" May turned to the suddenly very pale Max who had bitten off the tips of every finger nail. "Really Max?"

"H-huh? S-shut up! I've n-never been in a c-cave like this before." He stuttered with defiance. May laughed softly and placed a gentle hand on his head, ruffling his dark locks.

"Relax, I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He stared up at her before nodding in a agreement, his fear quelling slowly. May walked onward, following the path while Max lingered a bit behind her, deciding to somewhat enjoy the scenery. Just as she was turning the corner, she ran into something tall and slightly hard, jarring Silcoon out of her grasp.

"Ah-" she gasped, feeling the effects of gravity taking over as her body fell backwards from the impact. Suddenly, her body stopped in mid-fall by an arm wrapping around her waist securely. Instinctively, she closed her eyes, wanting for the hard impact. But when it didn't come she opened them in confusion only to see clear, light eyes staring back at her.

'_Oh…'_ she couldn't form words. Her mouth opened but nothing came out. The person before her, the man, stared down at her with mild concern. His lips twitched as if he were about to say something.

"A-"

"No way!" a boyish shout knocked both of them out of their silence and caused the man's grip on May to loosen and for her to come crashing to the ground. "You-! Y-You're Steven Stone!"

May cringed as she sat up, rubbing her backside. _That darn Max_, she thought, _always freaking out and scaring the wits out of people._ May grumbled slightly and made a move to stand, only for a hand to block her vision. The man, Steven Stone as Max called him, offered to help her up.

"Thanks," she mumbled with a faint blush on her cheeks. He merely smiled before turning to Max who had strange sparkles in his eyes.

"That I am. And who are you?" he asked, bending down to Max's eye level.

"I'm Max! Gosh, do you know how cool you are? I remember seeing you on TV all the time and-" May drifted in and out of the one-way declaration of adoration as she took in his features. Standing straight, he was good seven inches taller than her donned in a sleek black suit with purple zigzags running down both sides of the jacket. The silver hair complimented his strange silver looking eyes that gave off a familiar shine of determination and compassion.

To sum him up in one word:

'_Handsome…'_ May thought as she clasped her hands in front of her, her blush increasing. Her heart began to hammer in her chest the more she thought about him. Her mind then reverted back to when he caught her when they bumped into each other. Oh Ho-Oh! He practically caressed her! What a dream… _'I think I'm in love…'_

"Oh yeah, that's my sister May." Max introduced May who was in a lovely daze, holding her cheeks lovingly as she fantasized silently. Steven stared at her expression then chuckled lightly.

"May, is it?" he called. She flinched, face completely red as she stumbled over her words, refusing to meet his gaze. "I believe this little guy is yours." He said as he passed Silcoon back to May.

"Silcoon! I must've dropped him when I ran into you. Sorry!" she exclaimed as she took the pokemon back into her arms and scratched behind her head nervously.

"It's not problem. That's a very nice Silcoon you have there." He complimented. May bit her lip in anxiety as she looked down at the suddenly interested cave floor.

"A-ah, thank you…" she stammered. Max cocked a brow at her behavior before turning back to Steven who seemed totally unaffected by his sister's strange behavior.

"So you two are just exploring, huh? It's good to see trainers checking out caves. You never know what interesting things you might find." He said. To emphasize his point, Steven dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a strange looking stone. It was a lightweight stone with a neutral coloring. "Like this everstone here."

"Wow! You found that here? That's so cool!" Max said. Steven smiled at his enthusiasm then turned to May.

"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Steven Stone." He extended his hand out to her. Judging by her lack of knowledge about his person, he inferred that she might not know of him.

"M-may! Uh, May Maple." She cursed herself for being so flustered. She placed a shaky hand onto her face, surprised the heat emitted from it.

"I've been cooped up in here long enough and was about to leave. Would you two care to join me?" he offered. Max practically jumped at the offer while May remained silent, stuck in her own musings.

'_Steven…Stone…where have I heard that name before…?' _as she continued to think to herself, Steven pulled out a strange rope. Both he and Max grabbed onto it as well as May who did it unknowingly. Before she could blink, they were outside of the cave, standing in front of the entrance.

"That…was…so…cool!" shouted the boy. Steven chuckled at him then turned to May who seemed to be wracking her brain over something.

"May," he called. Suddenly, her eyes shot open and a wide smile found its way to her face.

"That's it! You're the Steven Stone that Mr. Stone was telling us about. I remember now!" she exclaimed.

"Mr. Stone?" Steven asked, curious.

"Yeah! He wanted us to give you something. Uh, I think it was a package." She explained.

"I see. You don't happen to have it on you by any chance?" he asked. May bit her lip again and looked away.

"Sorry, my friend has it actually. He's probably at the pokemon center." Steven considered what she said before nodding in agreement.

"Well, I guess we should meet up with him then," he said. Max grinned and fell into step beside the man while May smiled and followed as well.

"May…" Silcoon called from the comfort of her arms. She regarded him with a curious expression. "What's wrong with you?" she gapped at his question and turned red once more.

"Silcoon," she started. The white looking pokemon paused, waiting for her answer. "I think I have a crush."

* * *

"What do you think is taking them so long, Brock?" Ash asked as he sat down his fifth pokemagazine. Brock merely shrugged from his spot by the window before strolling over to the lobby chair and taking the seat across from the impatient trainer. Ash fiddled with his gloves out of boredom before resting his head in his palms and sighing for the umpteenth time.

"Take it easy Ash. They'll be here soon enough." Brock attempt to give the raven-haired boy reassurance. Just when he thought all hopes lost, he heard the familiar praising voice of Max as the sliding doors of the pokemon center opened, giving them a view of three people walking in, two of them familiar.

"And then when your Skarmory hit 'em with an Aerial Ace, it was all over!" Max spread his arms out wide to exemplify his excitement about the story. Steven sweatdropped at the retelling of one of his battles, slightly creeped at the fact that a mere child knew more about him than he did himself.

"Max! May!" Ash shot up from his seat and approached them, completely oblivious to the third person standing among them. "What took you guys so long?"

"Ash! Ash! Look at who we met?" Max exclaimed, tugging on Steven's pant leg. Curious, Ash looked up at the silver-haired man. He held out his hand for Ash to shake.

"Steven Stone, it's a pleasure." He replied. Ash seemed to be taken aback by his introduction as he turned the gesture.

"Ash Ketchum, same here." He then turned his attention to Brock who seemed to be watching him with mild curiousity.

"I'm Brock. It's an honor to meet one of Hoenn's champions." He replied.

"Champion?" Both Ash and May exclaimed at the same time.

"I guess you two wouldn't be familiar with Hoenn news since Ash isn't from here and May just moved a couple months ago." Brock explained.

"A champion…" May muttered to herself, cheeks red once more. Ash gazed at her confusedly.

"What's up with you, May?" he asked. May snapped out of her trance before attacking him with questions.

"That's right! Ash, do you still have that package Mr. Stone gave us?" she asked. He pondered the question for a second before he unstrapped his backpack and dug inside of it. Standing up, he held a neatly wrapped parcel in his hands.

"This is it right?"

"I think so. Remember he asked us to give to someone named Steven Stone?" she reminded him.

"Yeah, now that you mention it. You're him, right?" Ash asked.

"Yes I am. Thank you for delivering it to me." He thanked them. May blushed on again while Ash merely shrugged.

"No problem Steven. Wow, it's really cool to meet one of Hoenn's champions." Ash said. "Do you think we could have a battle?"

"That sounds like a fine idea, but I have somewhere to be soon so we'll have to do that another time. Do you have a pokenavigator?" he asked. Ash nodded and fished out the black and blue device, handing it to the silver haired trainer. Max, who was still holding May's, handed it to Steven as well. "I'll give you a call when the time's right."

"Awesome." Ash flipped through the device, staring at his two lone contacts before he closed it and turned to Max who was doing the same thing with May's.

"Wait, so you're leaving?" Max whimpered. "But I didn't get to see any of your cool pokemon."

"Step outside for a bit and I'll show you." With that, the five of them walked out into the early evening, approaching the shores of Dewford. Steven grabbed a pokeball from his belt and expanded it before tossing it into the air. "Skarmory!"

"Skraa!" the flying steel type screeching into the air before addressing its trainer accordingly. It was a strikingly intimidating pokemon with large red wings, piercing yellow eyes and fierce looking talons. Silcoon buried himself into May's arms, suddenly very afraid.

"Wow! It's your Skarmory! It's really _really_ your Skarmory!" Still in possession of May's pokedex, Max opened it up.

"_Skarmory, the flying/steel type. Skarmory are tall birds with long necks and long legs. Despite __being covered in extremely durable armor, they are surprisingly swift in flight, and its feathers are sharp enough to be used as swords and knives."_ It hummed it silence.

"So cool…" he muttered one last time. Steven grinned then preceded to mount the large bird. He patted the large bird on the head gentle, whispering words into its ear. Soon, its wings began to flap slowly while taking flight.

"It was nice meeting you all. Sorry I couldn't stay long." He said. May merely looked on silently until his gaze met hers. She held onto Silcoon tightly. Just when she thought was going to turn away, he winked and Skarmory took off into the skies, leaving a large gust of wind in its wake. They had to shield their eyes from the sand that picked up as they watched Steven slowly disappear beyond the horizon.

"It's cool that you guys met Steven." Brock commented as they made their way back to the center.

"Isn't it, though? Wow, this is great. First Ash, now Steven and you were even a gym leader! This is the greatest!" Brock smiled at Max's excitement. Ash smiled as well before he turned to May who seemed to be in some sort of trance. She continued to stare at where Steven's figure had been silently.

"Uh, May?" he called. She jumped out of her trance out the sound of her name being called and turned to him with a red face and surprised eyes. "You okay?"

"Uh, uhm yea! I'm fine. Just…" she paused then smiled, holding her cheek. "just fine." Not wanting to question her weird reaction, Ash shrugged. Just as he was about to head back to the center, he caught sight of the new pokemon resting in May's arms.

"Whoa! Is that your Wurmple?" he asked. "It evolved!"

"It sure did. He's a Silcoon now. Isn't he just the cutest!" May gushed as she rubbed her cheek up against his.

"That's great May." He congratulated her as they both headed back to the center. May seemed to be somewhat back to normal but Ash couldn't shake the feeling that he should be on his guard for something. He just didn't know what.

**Kris: End! End! End! End!**

**Max: Ok, we get it. It's the end!**

**Kris: Shut it!**

**May: Steven! Kyaa~!**

**Ash: May!**

**May: What? I'm sure you have fantasies about other girls.**

**Ash: …Huh?**

**Kris: No he doesn't. Ash wouldn't know a fantasy unless it was a pokemon.**

**Brock: She's got a point…**

**Kris: Bahaha! It's late, what else is new. But it's here!**

**May: Please do review.**

**Kris: Thanks for the favs, alerts, and subscribtions!**

**All: Thanks for reading! 4 Sure!**


	22. Meet You at the Beach

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Ah, it feels good to be updating again.**

**Max: How would you know what that feels like? You never update.**

**Kris: You got five seconds to get out Max.**

**May: Poor Max. Poor simple, naïve Max.**

**Ash: Run, man! Run!**

**Max: I'm not scared of her.**

**Kris: You should be.**

**Disclaimer: Well, she doesn't own pokemon so she's not all that great.**

**May: Great job of throwing the disclaimer in there.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you know me.**

**Kris: You better be out by the end of this chapter, punk.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 22

Meet You at the Beach

"_My darling May, you're such an amazing person. I don't know how I got this far in life without you." Steven exclaimed as he sat perched on one knee, holding my right hand gently. Such a gentleman. I merely swooned and blushed as red as my shirt._

"_Oh Steven, you flatter me too much." I gushed. He stood tall, towering over me. My breath was stuck in my throat once his hand cupped my cheek._

"_I could never flatter you enough." There was something in his eyes that told me he was being completely honest. I couldn't help but smile up at his beautiful face._

"_Really?" of course he nodded in agreement, he doesn't look like that type who would lie about something like that. I sighed happily, trying not to give away too much of my excitement. Then he started to lean it. Oh gosh! My-my first kiss!_

"_May…" he whispered my name, his lips just a breath away from mine._

"_Steven…"_

"What is she doing?" Max looked over the brunette girl in confusion as she slept happily. Ash looked up from his bed at May's sleeping figure and Max's hunched over one. She seemed to be having some sort of good dream. Max had called her name at least three different times only to receive incoherent mumbles in response.

"She's still not awake?" Brock called from the bathroom. Max turned to him and shook his head. "Must be some dream." He shrugged. Max looked down at his sister once more before a terrible idea formed in his head.

"May all the food in the cafeteria's gone!" he shouted. May leapt out of her bed, hair disarray and brain in an even worse state. She looked around the room frantically to see Max holding in his laughter, Ash looked sheepish and Brock seemed indifferent.

"Wha…" she murmured. At that, Max let out his laughter and slid off her bed. She pursed her lips at the joke and climbed out of bed. "Very funny Max. I'm going in the bathroom."

With that, the adolescent girl brushed past Brock and disappeared behind the restroom door with a nice early morning slam for good measure. Two of the three males sighed while the last opted to snicker as he sat Indian style on his May's bed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you guys were really related." Brock commented with a laugh. Max pouted angrily. Ash stood up from the bed, Pikachu hopping on his shoulder out of instinct. He stretched quickly before strapping his bag on his shoulders and heading for the door.

"I'm gonna go eat then start training, guys." He said.

"Okay Ash, we'll meet you down there once May gets done." Brock replied. The rave haired boy nodded before he disappeared down the hall. During his walk, he considered a few things. Like his second gym battle, his new pokemon, and his recent encounter with one of Hoenn's champions.

"That was pretty cool, huh Pikachu?" he asked the electric type.

"We always seem to run into celebrities." Pikachu responded. Ash nodded in agreement. "Max and May were practically hypnotized by the man."

"I understand Max but May was acting a little weird, don't you think?" Ash asked, obviously confused. In order to avoid his trainer's further confusion, Pikachu fought back the face palm.

"What do you mean by weird?" he asked, playing along with the situation.

"Well like blushing and stuttering and just staring at the guy. It was…weird. Do you think she felt nervous around him or something?" he seemed utterly baffled by May's behavior last night. Pikachu couldn't believe the boy could be so clueless.

"She might've been nervous. I mean, the champion of a whole region can be pretty intimidating. But then again…"

"What?" the boy asked.

"It's nothing." Pikachu waved it off, moving to rest atop the trainer's head. _'Nothing at all…'_

"Ah! It's such a nice day out here!" May exclaimed as she stretched her arms high as if to touch the sky. Exhaling deeply, May quickly scoped out Dewford Island, searching for any fun activity to engage herself in until it was time to meet back up at the center. Max and Brock decided to do a little shopping and site seeing while Ash went back to his training.

* * *

As she trekked the island, May couldn't help but hear the sounds of the waves crashing over the shore every so often. It was like a beacon of fun calling out to her. She grinned widely and made her way to the scarcely populated beach. Her excitement mounting, May quickly stripped herself of her outer garments and was left in a two-piece swimming suit.

Never mind the random passer-bys that looked on in confusion as the girl ripped her clothes off in public. Smiling to herself, May grabbed her two pokeballs and released her companions.

"Ah! It's such a nice day to be out of that stuffy pokeball!" Torchic said, spreading her fiery orange feather out. Silcoon just blinked tiredly, fighting off sleep. May just smiled at her two pokemon team before planting her hands on her hips and gazing at them excitedly.

"It's a great day for fun at the beach guys! I propose we build the best sand castle known to man!" May clenched her fist and held it up to the sky confidently. Silcoon yawned once more while Torchic engaged itself in picking at the sand below. May sweatdropped at their enthusiasm, or lack of.

"Come on guys! Who knows when we'll get to go to the beach again?"

"I hate water." Torchi deadpanned in midpeck.

"I'm sleepy." Silcoon added.

"Why do I even try…" May sighed, hunching her shoulders over.

"Hey May!" the familiar voice of Ash called from behind her. She turned to see Ash running towards her with his four pokemon trailing closely behind him.

'_Ash has already caught three Hoenn pokemon. I only have one…'_ May said to herself. She frowned thoughtfully but shook it away once he appeared in front of her.

"Hey Ash." She greeted back.

"What are you guys up to?" he asked, gazing silently at the two pokemon who seemed more aloof than normal.

"Well, we _were_ going to build a sand castle, but these two are acting like a couple of divas." May explained. She stuck her tongue out at them, only to receive the same from Torchic and a light snore from Silcoon. "What about you?"

"We were in the middle of training when we saw you." He said. Immediately, the training was put on hold as Treecko began a light conversation with Torchic, Pikachu stood between a very vulnerable Silcoon and a predatory Tailow, and Corphish started running around the beach chanting its name and bothering people. Yeah, training was over.

"I guess we could join you then." He admitted sheepishly and he slung his bag off his shoulders. May beamed brightly and shot her fist into the air.

"All right! Hurry and get changed so we can get started!" she cheered. As he gathered his clothes, Ash watched silently as May rushed down to the shores, donned in a simple purple two-piece bathing suit; swimming tank and boy short like bottoms.

"What do you think of May's swimsuit, lover boy?" Torchic asked slyly as she strode up to him.

'_Lover boy?'_ he questioned.

"It's nice. It suits her well." Not exactly the response little Torchic was looking for, but she accepted it nonetheless. Trotting back over to a groggy Silcoon, she squatted and made herself comfortable, basking in the warm sun.

The bug type, regarded her silently, that is until his mind recalled yesterday's events and their trainer's infatuation with the man known as Steven Stone. Of course Torchic was absent from all of this and probably has no clue about May's recent attraction. Seeing as she's trying to play matchmaker, Silcoon decided she deserved to know about the most recent development in May's ten year old love life.

"Hey Torchic," he started. The fire chick gave him a questioning look encouraging him to continue. "May's got somebody she likes."

"Of course she does, silly. It's Ash." She replied. He sighed. So this wasn't going to be easy.

"No, it's somebody else." Her eyes bulged a bit as she considered the options.

"The white-haired grandpa looking boy?" her first option.

"No, not him." He replied.

"That pervert boy with the tiny eyes?" she asked. He narrowed his gaze.

"Now that's just mean. It's not him either." He answered once more.

"Mhmm, I can't think of anyone else…is it you?" and she was serious too.

"No, Torchic. It's not me." If he had hands, they would be clenched into fists by now.

"I don't know. She's always hugging you and cooing and picking you up and-"

"It's Steven Stone!" he shouted, utterly frustrated with her.

"Steven Stone?" she shouted. "When did this happen?"

"Yesterday we met up with the guy. She had hearts in her eyes and everything." He explained, much to her dismay.

"This can't be happening!"

Not too far off from where Ash and May had situated themselves was a trio of thieves whom we haven't seen in about fifteen chapters. Yeah, it's been _that_ long. Still, they remain the same, ever plotting to take things that would never belong to them. Not in a million years. But hey, morons can dream right? Well, morons is a little extreme. Back to the useless plotting!

"Seems likes the twerp as acquired a nice team of steal worthy pokemon since our last encounter." Jesse commented as they spied on the boy. "Not mention that sneaky twerpette is trying to copy me by getting a Silcoon as well."

"I wonder when she's gonna realize that she has a Cascoon…" James muttered to a sighing Meowth.

"All right, gang. Here's the plan…"

"When dey least expect it, we'll sneak up on 'em." Meowth interjected. Jesse just stared at him blankly before glaring.

"Way to steal my lines Meowth." The red head sneered.

"But Jess, how is this time going to be any different from all those hundreds-"

"Tousands…" Meowth interrupted.

"Thousands of times they've blasted us off before?" James asked. He was having a pretty decent day so far and getting blasted to oblivion and beyond didn't sound all that appealing at the moment.

"Because we have a secret weapon that'll be sure to work." She snickered to herself. The two males could only sigh. She seemed to be the only one up for it today.

When Ash arrived from the changing booth May was crouched and molding the sand with her hands. She bit her lip in concentration, not looking up from her masterpiece even when he crouched down next to her.

"What kind of castle are we making?" he asked. May looked up from her work and pondered the question while humming softly to herself.

"Uhm, I'm not sure. I'm just working on the base right now." She replied. He nodded and grabbed a shovel and pale that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He filled it to the brim with sand and packed it nice and tight before carefully flipping it over. He gave the pale a good tug from the ground, letting the packed sand stand on its own prettily…before it promptly crumbled.

"Haha! You don't do this often, do you?" May teased. He furrowed his brows and made a move to try again only for the girl to snatch the bucket from his hands and make a mad dash for the retreating waters.

"Hey!" he shouted in protest. She merely giggled at his response but waved for him to join her. Curious, he followed her down to the shore and let the gentle waters crash over his sands covered toes.

"You can't just put plain sand into a bucket, Ash. It has to me mixed with water otherwise it won't hold." She explained. May gather up some of the damp sand and placed it in the bucket just like Ash had done. She packed it in tight, flipped it, then lifted the pale. It came out nice and sturdy. "See?"

"Oh, I get it. Thanks May, you seem to know a lot about this stuff." He said. She merely smiled.

"I used to go to the beach all the time. Olivine City has the best beach for sand castles in Johto." Ash nodded in agreement as they continued with their building.

Soon Ash began to get the hang of it, gathering up damp sand and making sturdy pillars while May gathered seashells and stones for decorations. Treecko and Torchic put their conversation on hold and decided to help. While Pikachu managed to get Tailow and calm down enough not to attack Silcoon who was still napping. Corphish stood off to the side, admiring all the hard work.

"Wow, it looks so good." May exclaimed as they took a quick break.

"I didn't know making sand castles could be so much fun." He added. The two sat in front of the structure, Ash with his legs stretched out and arms propping up his upper body and May with her legs crossed.

"Seems like you learn something new every day, huh?" she beamed.

"Yeah, like you being a fan of Steven Stone." He commented. May's eyes widened as she swiftly turned her head to the unsuspecting boy. Torchic's nonexistent ears perked at the sound of that name.

"Me? A f-fan? U-uhm, don't you think that's more Max than me?" she asked nervously.

"I guess so but you were pretty astonished by him too." Dear gods, was he teasing her? May look at him incredulously, horrifyingly surprised by his statement.

"N-now wait just a—!"

"Prepare for trouble!"

**Kris: Bahaha! Cliffhanger!**

**Max: You take forever to update and-**

**Kris: Get out!**

**Max: …Okay.**

**May: Hm. That was surprisingly easy.**

**Kris: Yes. Yes it was. So, what'd you guys think?**

**May: There was advanceshipping in this chapter!**

**Kris: Please stay tuned for next time!**

**All: Review please!**

**R&R**


	23. Meet You at the Beach Pt 2

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! It's been so long, hasn't it?**

**May: Yeah, it really has.**

**Ash: Way too long. Do you even remember what pokémon is?**

**Kris: Yes Ash, I remember what pokémon is.**

**Ash: What is it?**

**Kris: It's a TV show and a series of games as well as really cool creatures that have even cooler abilities.**

**Ash: Ok, you got me.**

**Kris: So anyway, I had been reading over this story when all of the sudden I got an extra special PM asking me to update. It. Was. Destiny. And I don't ignore destiny.**

**AJ: So here we are! This chapter is dedicated to Trainer Jayden!**

**Kris: I don't own pokémon! Enjoy this chapter!**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 23

Meet You at the Beach Part 2

Ash and May were jarred out of their conversation at the sudden appearance of a strangely large Magikarp sitting idly in the middle of the waters. It didn't even look real. It was very industrial looking with obviously bolts and screws in various places as well as a very obnoxious look scope poking out at the top.

"What the…" May whispered, standing up from the soft sand below and narrowing her discerning blue eyes at the metal contraption.

"Oh no." Ash groaned from beside her while Pikachu hopped up on his shoulder, sparks flying from his red cheeks. Rising up from the center of the Magikarp, on a platform, was none other than those three idiots known as Team Rocket. And May growled from her spot on the shore, fists clenching and memories of the trio rearing back to the forefronts of her mind.

If she recalled this was the bunch who kidnapped her instead of Pikachu, tied her up, and had the nerve to still try to take Pikachu again. Just the mere thought of them grinded the mess out of her gears.

"Not you again!" she shouted striking a mean pose with her pointer finger jabbed aggressively in their direction. She glared right at their arrogant figures while Torchic mocked her position, chirping insistently. "Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

"They'll never learn their lesson, May." Ash called in an annoyed tone. He too fell into a defensive stance at their appearance, not particularly happy about his beach day being interrupted by the gang of fools.

"Yes! We're back again! And we're going to take that Pikachu of yours!" Jesse called haughtily from atop the red machine before laughing victoriously, hand poised in front of her lipstick stained mouth.

"That is correct! You won't stand a chance against us today, twerps!" James added, wringing his gloved hands together menacingly. Meowth just snickered before whipping out a remote and pointing it at the pair of trainers and their pokémon.

"Take 'dis!" Meowth cried as he pressed a red button on the remote. The two trainers steeled themselves against whatever was coming their way, watching with wide eyes as a series of tentacles emerged from the inside and shot right towards them. Sand castle forgotten, May and Ash took off in the opposite direction, pokémon in tow. But a helpless cry from behind her caused May to turn back.

"Silcoon!" she cried, remembering the new addition to her team who was now immobile. Rushing back to the stationary cocoon, she scooped him up in hers just in time to miss getting snatched up by the metal looking tentacles. But not fast enough to avoid getting a little scratched up by it. She cringed at the pain in her arm, sending a glare back to the group as the tentacles retracted a bit.

She joined Ash soon after, ignoring his concerned stare at the forming bruise on her left shoulder in favor of making sure Torchic and Silcoon were alright.

"They're going to pay." She growled under her breath. The group let out a series of chuckles before sending the tentacles out once more. This time Ash went on the offensive.

"Corphish, hit 'em with a bubblebeam!" he commanded. Corphish crawled forward and thrust his claw out, releasing a series of bubbles directly at the tentacles, but they had no effect.

"Haha! We told you!" James taunted. May ground her teeth, thoroughly angry.

"Why didn't that work?" Ash asked, confused and frustrated. The tentacles just continued to dance around in the air, as if mocking Ash for his failed attempt at an attack. It only served to anger him even more, only calmed by the fact that Pikachu was cooing in his ear encouragingly.

"It's useless! Now hand over da Pikachu!" Meowth demanded, pressing the button to release the tentacles again. May cringed, her arm throbbing as she made sure both of her pokémon were out of harm's way before turning to Ash for help.

"We need to beat these guys." She said giving him a stern look.

"Got any ideas? We know bubblebeam won't work." He said, dodging one of them and making sure Pikachu was out of their reach.

"We need a distraction." May thought to herself. "Like smoke or something."

"Smoke? Fire and water make steam, is that close enough?" Ash replied. That's when it hit her! Ash's Corphish and her own Torchic!

"Yeah, yeah! And while they're distracted by that, Silcoon can hop on top of Tailow and-"

"Use string shot to get the remote back!" their plan was set.

"Go Corphish! Use bubblebeam directly at the machine!" Ash called.

"You too Torchic, use ember!" both pokémon did as they were instructed and fired off their respective water and fire type attacks, effectively creating a decent sized amount of steam to distract Team Rocket.

"Just what are those brats up to now?" Jesse fumed. "Go Seviper! Stop them!"

"Seviper!" the venomous pokémon landed right before the two small pokémon, using intimidate to frighten them into submission. Torchic flinched back, her ember stopping abruptly. She cowered behind a sweating Corphish who was also quite startled by the snake pokémon.

"Use poison sting!" she called.

"Dodge it!" Ash and May chorused together while secretly sending Tailow with a shaky Silcoon on his back to snag the remote from Meowth. Corphish heeded the words of his trainer and quickly scurried away while Torchic was still frozen in fear and refused to move even an inch.

May watched with fearful blue eyes as the poison substance veered dangerously close to her starter.

"Torchic!" she cried. She was about to jump to her aid when a flash of green brushed passed her and in front of the fire type. Treecko entered the mix without the call of his trainer and redirected the poison sting with the back of his tail, shielding both him and Torchic.

"Nice save Treecko! Now use pound!" compiling cooly with the command, Treecko repelled himself backwards and thrust his green tail right into Seviper's face sending it careening backwards and into the sand. May used this time to get Torchic out of the line of fire.

"Gah! Hey! Gimme back da remote!" Meowth shrieked in surprise at the sudden attack that removed the device from his paws. Tailow cawed proudly before returning his trainer, tilted slightly as to release Silcoon from his back. He fell right into May's arms, presenting her with the remote.

"Good work guys! Now, to shut this thing off." Pressing the button the tentacles immediately grew slack, causing Team Rocket to stiffen and cringe back a bit.

"All right Pikachu, let's finish this up with thunder!" Nodding accordingly, Pikachu hopped from Ash's shoulder and directed a very large thunder right at the offending thieves, sparing not one of them from the wrath of his electricity.

"I thought we had them!" Jesse screeched.

"You and me both." James sighed.

"Me tree!" Meowth pouted.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" with them now soaring into the bright blue sky above, Ash and May could breathe a sigh of relief.

May released Silcoon onto the sand where he moved to comfort a still shaky Torchic. She watched as he shifted over to the timid fire type and whispered encouraging words before Torchi kind of smiled and nudged him appreciatively before padded over to an overconfident looking Treecko and doing the same. He appeared unfazed by her actions aside from the red that tented his green cheeks.

"We make a pretty good team, huh?" May called, walking over to Ash. He was bent down tending to Corphish and congratulating Tailow who had perched himself in Ash's hair much like he would a nest. She held back a laugh at the sight in favor of keeping herself somewhat composed after what just happened.

"Yeah, I guess we do." He replied with a smile. An awkward moment passed between them as May gazed about the beach. She just gave it an idle glance before her eyes fell on their sand castle, or what was left of it, and she gasped.

"Oh no! Our sand castle!" she exclaimed, falling to her knees in front of it.

"It must've gotten ruined when Team Rocket showed up." He said, picking up some sand in his hands before letting it slip through his fingers. May's face was in an evident pout as she fell back onto her bottom, arms and legs crossed.

"I'll never forgive them for this." She declared. She pried an eye open at the sound of Ash's laughter only to see him trotting down towards the waters with their bucket in his hands.

"We'll just have to start over then." He smiled. And May sighed, relaxing from her childish position before smiling as well and working on the base.

"Ok then."

The rest of the day consisted of them building a mediocre looking sand castle which was knocked down by an overexcited Corphish. May then declared to never forgive the shellfish pokémon for such an offense, resulting in him firing a weak bubble beam attack directly in her face sending her tumbling to the warm sand below. Ash gave him a stern scolding for such an act then turned to make sure May was okay.

But judging by the uncontrollable laughter erupting from her person she was just fine. Even if her face stung a bit and there was an annoying seashell digging into her back she still managed to laugh loudly as if being hit with a bunch of bubbles was the funniest thing ever. However she made a mental note to get her arm bandaged as the early attack from Team Stupid was still bothering her.

That would have to wait since both their stomachs growled at that exact moment.

"I told you building sand castles was fun." May called on their way back to the pokémon center. She had her towel wrapped around her waist with Silcoon in her arms and Torchic trailing behind her. Ash had his towel curled around his neck with Pikachu on his shoulder, as usual, and the others resting in their pokéballs.

"Yeah it was fun. It felt good to take a break from training." He replied. "But if we want that badge, it's back to work tomorrow."

"Good luck. I didn't know much about the Rustboro gym leader but I used to hear a lot from my dad about Dewford's." she answered. They soon reached the center, shivering at the blast of A/C that hit them as soon as they stepped inside.

"Oh yeah? What type is it?" he asked, leaving his pokeballs at the counter while May followed suit.

"It's fighting. The gym leader is Brawly. He's kind of a weirdo but really strong." She said. Ash nodded and opened the door of their room to find Max in the odd position of giving a crouching Brock a lecture while the latter nursed his obviously red ear.

"-stop doing that to girls! It makes them uncomfortable!" they clearly came at the end of the conversation but it was amusing nonetheless.

"Hey guys," Ash called cautiously, catching their attention. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and climbed onto his respective bed before curling into a ball and resting. "What have you been up to?"

"We went all over the place!" Max exclaimed, completely ignoring the whimpering Brock who was, strangely, being comforted by May.

"What happened?" she whispered while Ash was busy trying to decipher what Max was saying through all of his excitement.

"I saw this pretty girl-"

"Say no more. Next time you go out, don't bring Max with you." She smiled, giving the older boy a nice pat on the head before turning to her bruise. "You wouldn't happen to have any bandages would you?"

Snapping out of his state of depression, Brock jumped into action. He reached for his pack where inside laid a roll of gauze, disinfectant and band-aids. May was a little surprised by his arsenal of first aid but was till grateful for the things he had.

Ash had managed to calm down Max enough to take a seat in the room. He watched as Brock tended to May's wound, spraying it with the disinfectant and then layering it in gauze and tying it securely right on her left shoulder. She flinched a little but seemed to be relieved that it was no longer in danger of getting any worse.

"Thanks," she said, inspecting it before heading into the bathroom to shower.

"What happened?" Brock asked once she shut the door. Ash sighed, removing the towel from his neck and holding it in his hands.

"We had a little run in with Team Rocket." He said, eyes narrowed. At that, Brock completely understood, sighing in response. But Max was a bit confused.

"Who's Team Rocket?" he asked, coming to sit beside Ash on the bed.

"They're a group of thieves who steal pokémon for their own gain. They've been following me ever since I started my own journey." He explained. The glasses clad boy looked on with a surprised expression before the information was affirmed by a stiff nod from Brock.

"Thieves?" he whispered. Ash watched worriedly as the little boy stood up from his seat on the bed and moved to stand by the door, his back turned to them.

"Max?" Brock called worriedly.

"This," he began quietly. "Is going to be the best journey ever!"

**Kris: This looks like a nice place to end, right?**

**May: How dare Team Rocket injure me! I'll never forgive them!**

**Ash: I wish you were as concerned about being hurt then as you are now.**

**Max: Yeah, you were all worried about the sand castle. Weirdo.**

**May: My priorities are just different, that's all.**

**Kris: Funny stuff guys! So tell me what you think everyone! It's almost been a year since I last updated, but I'm still alive! The next chapter will be out whenever I finish it. At the rate that I finished this one, it should be pretty soon.**

**Max: Yes! Because I'm awesome in this.**

**May: No you're-**

**Ash: Don't be a thunder stealer May.**

**May: Fine.**

**Kris: Also I have a poll up on my page and if you like advanceshipping, A Different Kind of Rivalry, and Naruto you better go check it out!**

**All: Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	24. The Apprentice

**Kris: Hi! Hi! Everyone! Remember like two years ago when I had a series of super surprises that started around chapter 11? It's happening again!**

**AJ: Yeah, remember we said it was like the apocalypse?**

**Mikey: This is more like the apocalypse.**

**Ash: Armageddon!**

**Kris: Ok guys, it's not that deep.**

**May: Uh yeah, it kind of is. You know chapter 22? It was updated May of last year.**

**Kris: So? I took a break! Gosh, you guys act like I completely abandoned this story!**

**Ash: You kind of did.**

**Kris: Look I'm updating now, aren't I? So cut me some slack or I'll replace all of you with crappy Mary-Sue OC's!**

**All: -gasp- You wouldn't dare!**

**Kris: Try me. Remember, I don't own pokémon. Enjoy this chapter.**

**All: Start the party!**

Chapter 24

The Apprentice

The next day found May seated alone at a small café style restaurant, underneath an umbrella of an outdoor table. She stirred her ice cold lemonade idly while watching Torchic and Silcoon attempt some little pokémon game that she had been trying to figure out for the past five minutes. As far as she knew, it was some form of paper rock scissors. Or more like tackle growl leer.

Yeah, her pokémon were weird.

It was too bad her other companions had all went their separate ways that morning. Ash, after hearing that the gym leader was tough, went out training early. She hadn't seen him since last night. Brock decided to take her advice and go looking for cute girls without Max tagging along. And said little boy chose to stay with Ash and bother—er help out with the training.

Leaving May to her own devices, the boys engaged in their own endeavors not sparring her a second thought.

After her third sigh, Torchic glared at her trainer and hopped up on the table.

"Why so glum chum?" she tilted her head cutely to the side watching her trainer sip from the drink before answering.

"There's nothing to do!" She replied, resting her forehead on the cool tabletop below. Torchic hummed slightly before moving to peck her lazing trainer on the head. She eventually ended up pulling the red bandana off her mess of chestnut locks and jumping off the table, convincing Silcoon to initiate a chase.

"Hey! Where are you two going?" She called, jumping from her seat, hands feeling her head for the missing accessory. Torchic just laughed while the cocoon pokémon ambled away as fast as he could knowing May would catch up to him sooner than later. And that she did, grabbing him up and resting him comfortably in the junction between her arm and hip.

May paused in her pursuit, shaking her head amusedly as Torchic ran about the town with the red cloth hanging from her beak and laughing as she did so. Giving a glance to the defeated Silcoon she continued the chase with a newfound smile on her face.

"Get back here, you!"

* * *

Elsewhere on the island, Ash was deeply engrossed in a rigorous training routine with his newly acquired pokémon. It started off as a nice paced jog along the shoreline, then a run, and then a full out race to see who could sprint the fastest down the length of the beach. Of course Pikachu bested them all with a flawless quick attack which goaded Treecko into using a newfound attack in the form of bullet seed to slow the electric type down.

This gave Tailow the advantage by initiating a quick attack of his own therefore taking the lead. And poor Corphish, not wanting to be left out for even one second, launched a hefty bubble beam at the whole lot of them and ended the race in a crooked four way tie. But Treecko was clearly unhappy with the results and the crustacean's lack of tact.

And so began a series of battles.

Ash just stood proudly to the sides, letting his pokémon train naturally with each other. It was fun to watch them engage one another in friendly battles and form bonds. He figured that stepping back every once in a while and letting them do their own thing would benefit them in the long run, considering they'd be together for a pretty long time. Besides that, this bonding time was necessary for he knew their personalities were bound to clash.

Pikachu was seasoned, no longer a rookie and no longer capable of rash mistakes. He knew the ins and outs of official battles and knew his trainer better than anyone. Tailow, while he hadn't seen much action, was headstrong by nature. Always eager to take on any opponent no matter the size or the strength. Treecko was more street smart and demanded everyone acknowledge it. He had been fighting practically since the day he hatched and had a knack for being overconfident. And while Corphish was strong and he meant well, he was clearly overbearing and a glutton for punishment.

'_Quite the group I got settled with,'_ Ash thought amusedly to himself. Arms crossed and face bright with a smile, his brown eyes scanned over his Hoenn team with a flicker of pride just dancing away. He knew this region would hold great things, heck every region he'd been to so far had. But to actually experience it and see it right before his eyes was kind of astounding. Never in a million years would he have guessed being a pokémon trainer would be so fulfilling.

"You're going to love this Max." he looked to the younger boy beside him who was also enjoying the view. Max pushed his large glasses further up his nose before shooting Ash a boyish grin, the sun lighting up his round baby fat like cheeks. His excited eyes roamed over the pokémon frantically, trying to soak up as much information about each and every one of them.

This was what he had been dying to see. The behind the scenes action that isn't shown during the league battles. And while those were definitely a sight to see, it was nothing compared to the process of getting there. It was like watching someone make your favorite toy. Or seeing a delicious treat being made right from scratch. It was the amazement that these little pokémon would one day grow to have great battles that drove him to want to be a part of something just as wonderful.

"I can't wait." He whispered. The two continued to watch the battles unfold before being joined by the newest addition to Team Hoenn, Brock, who had brought along lunch.

"Hey guys how's the training coming?" he greeted, letting the large pack slide off his back and onto the soft sand below. The greeting was returned with a nod from Ash and several descriptive words from Max. He smiled at the boy's enthusiasm while busying himself with whipping up something for them to munch on. He figured sandwiches would do nicely.

"So Ash," he began. "When do you think you'll be ready to face the gym leader?"

"Probably tomorrow." Came his reply.

"That soon?" Brock question.

"Yup. We've made a lot progress since we landed. I'm sure we'll be able to get that badge, no problem." He said confidently. At first, all he had wanted to do when they arrived on the island was battle the leader. He was still a bit revved up from his win against Roxanne. But after hearing that the next battle was no pushover he chose, instead, to take his time and do some training.

"Knowing you you'll end up winning." The older boy smiled in agreement. It was then that his thin eyes scanned the area of the beach, his gaze falling on Max, Ash's pokémon, and then Ash himself before coming to the conclusion that May was nowhere in sight. "So May's not with you guys then?"

"I haven't seen her since this morning." Ash replied, scratching the back of his uneasily. Brock's mouth formed into a crooked frown before he shrugged and began cleaning up the mess from lunch.

Ash attempted to return to training but at the sudden mention of their sole female companion he found himself unable to focus. For some reason, the thought of May being alone was troubling to him. She almost always managed to get into some kind of trouble when he wasn't around. Not to say he was some sort of good luck charm, he did have Team Rocket following him. But with May it was somehow different and he couldn't really explain it.

* * *

May was still chasing her mischievous Torchic through the island town of Dewford with Silcoon wrapped securely in her arms. While it was a little difficult to keep up with her fire starter, she couldn't deny the fact that she was actually enjoying herself. It was fun to run after Torchic, who was also having a ball weaving in and out of the people who were walking about.

"Come on Torchic! Slow it down!" May called insistently. Torchic merely turned its head back and did what May assumed was a laugh. She could only sigh at her antics before a slight wave of panic passed over her as Torchic rammed into an unsuspecting passerby's leg.

"Oh no! Torchic!" she cried, sprinting the rest of the way to where the chick lay sprawled out on the ground below, forgotten bandana not too far behind it.

"I'm so sorry." May apologized, bowing respectfully to the stranger before checking to make sure her pokémon was ok. Torchic chirped quietly and May could've sworn the fire type was blushing but it was kind of hard to tell what with the warm colored fur and all.

"Don't worry about it young lady. I take it this is your Torchic, then?" the brunette looked up from her perch at Torchic's side to see an elderly lady staring down at her with fondness hidden behind her aged eyes.

"Yes that's correct." May smiled a bit as Torchic hopped on her shoulder, talons digging gently into the fabric of her shirt.

"How cute. Are you a pokémon trainer?" the lady asked.

"Correct again. My name is May." She introduced.

"Rose dear. That Torchic of yours is quite energetic, isn't she?" Rose commented with a light smile.

"Yeah. She was actually trying to cheer me up a bit." May smiled as well, rubbing underneath Torchic's feathery chin before readjusting a now sleeping Silcoon in her arms.

"How nice it is to see young trainers bonding with their pokémon. Tell me May, are you planning on challenging the Dewford gym leader?" Rose asked as she began walking away from their current spot, beckoning May to follow along.

"Actually I want to become a coordinator." May replied quite sheepishly. She still wasn't entirely sure on her choice of trainer career seeing as she had nothing to show for, but it was better than doing something she had no interest in.

"A coordinator? How splendid! You know, I could teach you a few things about being a top notch coordinator." She bragged lightly.

"You could? Really?"

"Why of course. I was quite the performer back in my younger days. My pokémon and I soared through contests like champions." More bragging.

"Like champions…wow," May lost all train of thought in favor of dreaming about being a world class coordinator, winning countless contests. Torchic stared at her trainer's dazed expression before beady black eyes drifted to the older woman who wore a look of long lost nostalgia.

"Uh May?" the fire type called unsurely. May snapped out of her dream like state just as the woman sighed contently.

"Why don't you come by my house for some tea? It's just a ways down." She offered. Giving Torchic and Silcoon a questioning look, she nodded and followed the lady down a gravel path with a bright smile on her face. Imagine the chance of meeting a real live coordinator on the island and having her teach her things about contests. It was almost like a dream come true.

The little house they came upon was cute, May thought. It was yellow with a white picket fence, a bird bath in the front yard, and a small porch with a swing right by the door.

"Wow, your house is so adorable." She gushed, sitting Silcoon down in the yard while Torchic hopped off her shoulder in favor of rolling around in the warm grass below. May watched with a slightly embarrassed expression as the two them just rolled around laughing as they went. She resisted the urge to face palm as Rose beckoned her to the porch where she had brought out some cookies.

"The tea is brewing right now. Are there any questions you have for me, dearie?" Rose asked. May gave it some serious thought while munching on the snack. This was her chance to gain some priceless information on contests and possibly one up her would be opponents. She couldn't waste is by asking ridiculous questions.

"How," she paused, gathering her thoughts. "How do contests work?"

Rose hummed to herself, feeling nostalgic, before answering May. She went on to explain how contests had two main parts; the appeals and the battles. In the appeals round trainers try their best to show their pokémons unique abilities, appearance, and the bond they share. The battle round uses the elements showed off in the appeals to see how well pokémon attack against each other. Not to see who's stronger, but to see who puts on the best show.

She then explained how the main goal for all coordinators is to participate in the Grande Festival, which happens only once a year. In order to compete it is necessary to obtain five contest ribbons. Once all have been obtained, entering the Grande Festival would be no problem. But it is not easy as they are fifty-nine other competitors all going after the same prize. The Ribbon Cup and the title of Top Coordinator.

"Wow," May gasped, holding the hot cup of tea in her gloved hands. She had no idea contests would be so complex, so intense. It was kind of scary thinking about how she'd be so new to it. But at the same time it was kind of exciting as well. It was excited because she'd finally be able to do things with her pokémon other than just play with them and train every once in a while. But now that she had a goal there was no room for slacking.

**Kris: Yeah I'm ending it here.**

**All: …**

**Kris: Why so silent?**

**All: …**

**Kris: Oh, is this because I threatened to replace you with OC's?**

**AJ: Possibly.**

**Kris: Well, you're already an OC so I don't see why you're so afraid.**

**AJ: You said you'd replace me with a crappy one! **

**Mikey: I think she added Mary-Sue in there too.**

**Kris: I did.**

**AJ: Like that's better! I don't want to be a crappy Mary-Sue OC!**

**Mikey: Me neither!**

**Ash&May: Us too!**

**Kris: Then watch how you address your almighty authoress! **

**All: Scary…**

**Kris: As well always thank you for reading!**

**Ash: Hey check out the fancy new review thingy at the bottom.**

**Mikey: It's like daring you to not review. It's kind of intimidating.**

**Kris: That it is, that it is. Later!**

**All: Don't forget to vote in the poll! 4 Sure!**

**R&R**


End file.
